A Soldier's Calling
by Alpha 001
Summary: Nate had lost more than anyone should ever have to lose, he lost his friends, family, his home, everything thanks to having to go through 3 wars, including the one that had ended everything. Now after everything he had gone through, he will be forced off of his own world and into one that has no concept of war. They were truly saints compared to the man that was about to join them.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hello everyone, this is my first submission to this website, so please bear with me on this. I saw the movie Zootopia and fell in love with it, not just because of the message it sent, but also because of the characters and world it created in telling its story, all the while delivering its message in a manner that all could enjoy.**

 **And then my devious little mind asked, "Say, these people don't seem to have a whole lot of downright evil in their society. Sure these people have disagreements and thievery problems and the occasional radical that seeks out to undermine the whole society for the sole reason of finding one group superior to another. What if Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps of the ZPD had to encounter a man from a world in which ultra-violent crimes were a daily routine and dealt with swiftly and brutally?"**

 **And thus this story, where the Sole Survivor of Vault 111 was dropped into this utopian society after having to deal with the Institute.**

 **This chapter is pretty much just establishing who the Sole Survivor is and what they have been through in the past in order to somewhat establish who he is as a character.**

 **Please keep in mind that this is my first attempt in doing so.**

 **Also, please keep in mind that there will be equipment in Nate's arsenal that are parts of mods, after all Fallout is a Bethesda game, and it is a right of passage to mod those until they crash.**

 **So without further ado, please enjoy.**

Chapter 1:

Fate is a fickle thing. Everyone can feel its pull dragging us one way or another, and yet no one knows exactly what it has planned for us. Some follow its will and find themselves either regretting their decision, questioning why fate had chosen that specific destiny for them or fulfilled in having accomplished some life goal they didn't even realize they had. Others resist the temptation and choose to carve their own path in defiance of the lure of fate, but perhaps that is what fate had wanted them to do the whole time and knew that that specific individual would never go through with their destiny unless they felt like they weren't.

Looking back, Nate had felt like his fate had been rigged from the start.

Having been brought up in an America that was in a state of perpetual war for the sake of black gold, he had been constantly exposed to the atrocities of war as he had been brought up in the heart of the conflict, Anchorage, Alaska. Having the Chinese breaking down your door in the middle of the sunlit night and executing your family as you hid under a bed, holding your breath just so you might be able to see the next day was enough to drive anyone to desperate acts and question whether their fate had good intentions for them.

Nate did not have time to think on such thoughts.

He could not afford to think about how his family had just died before his very eyes.

America had gotten desperate in repelling the red menace from their shores and was trying everything it could to try and expel communistic influences from their democratic borders. Nate was only 23 and fresh out of Engineering College when he enlisted himself into the army, wanting to ensure that no one would ever have to watch their families die like that ever again. He fought side by side with those who had seen the true atrocities of war, their eyes like pilot lights locked onto the frontlines as they geared up for war, and quite possibly their deaths. From the lowly grunt all the way up to the almost mythic power armor clad soldiers, none were immune to the atrocities of war. All looked as if they had been beaten on a regular basis and had lost more than any one individual should.

But even through it all, they fought on, never once backing down from the challenges that presented themselves to the brave men and women of the US army. Nate never backed down.

Nate was with the American horde as they pushed through the trenches. He watched as the T-51b's destroyed the Chinese compound walls with their portable nuclear weapons. He watched as his commanding officer managed to talk their general into committing seppuku in front of his men and the pressing Americans. He watched as all across the Alaskan frontier, soldiers and civilians alike roared in elation as the Chinese ships retreated from the frigid waters to return to the China mainland.

Nate had watched the end begin.

In his excitement, he had gotten overly eccentric with a lawyer by the name of Nora, a woman who had earned herself a high ranking position amongst the law system of the United States. After a wonder evening under the sky of Alaska in a beautiful snow crusted park, Nora had found herself pregnant, but even though it was unplanned, both she and Nate wouldn't have it any other way.

Retiring from the army with the rewards of being a veteran, Nate and Nora moved to the wonderful commonwealth on the East Coast of the United States, eager to begin a new life away from the stresses and strains of military life in the west. Nora had no trouble acclimating to her new life as a Bostonian and as a mother in a time that would leave most other women envious.

That was what Nate admired about her the most, the thing that made him fall in love with her. No matter the situation, no matter the opposition, she would continue onwards, never once backing down from a challenge and never giving an inch in her pursuits. It was as if she was a personification of America itself, she held onto what she held near and dear to her with an iron grip and would never let go. She would work to improve its condition and make it an item to truly experience.

Within months of arriving in the Commonwealth, she had made a name for herself as a formidable defense attorney, proving innocence where a guilty verdict was almost guaranteed. She was a master at her craft, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat with beautifully crafted sentences and expertly built defenses, she was a force to be reckoned with on the courtroom floor. No other name inspired fear in an opposing lawyer than the name of Nora.

As confident as she was on the field of law, she was surprisingly nervous about becoming a mother. Nate would have found it humorous if he was not in the same situation as she was. He did find it strange, however, that he had seen the worst the world had to offer and she wasn't afraid of any challenge, and yet here they were, fretting about one of the most basic concepts of life: reproduction.

Every minute of every day that wasn't spent in the veteran's office or in a courtroom were spent doing hours upon hours of research on how to raise a child. Nate had hand built a bedroom for the baby they had decided to name Shaun, in memory of a soldier who had save Nate's life. Nora had spent a great deal of time saving up many to, at Nate's request, purchase a Mr. Handy servant robot to care for the house while they were away on business. Though skeptical at first, Nora had grown to appreciate the robotic butler, and he quickly became the unofficial uncle of the household, Codsworth became his name.

Nate and Nora spent so much time preparing for the baby, they were almost shocked when the time finally came, the 9 month waiting period having gone by in a metaphorical flash. The loving couple welcomed Shaun to the world, and both looked forward to raising their son in the land that Nate had fought to keep safe and Nora fought to keep civilized.

As hard as they fought on their respective fronts, they fought even harder in raising their child to be the best that he could become.

Even now, Nate could look back with a smile on his face as he recalled all the times he had read a bedtime story to his sleeping infant son, always reminding him that he was special as he read the colorful pages of the _You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L._ book he had purchased at request from some of his old college friends. It quickly became his favorite past time to read the book to his son, it helped to put Shaun to sleep even during some of the rougher storms the Commonwealth had to offer and it even helped to put his mind at ease. To have to go through the hell that is war as some nameless grunt, to have something, even a small little book call you special, it was enough to warm anyone's heart on even the coldest of days.

It was the first thing he found in the ruins of his home 200 years later, it somehow managing to survive 200 years of neglect at the hands of mother nature and father time.

Life had been normal for the family unit, Nora had gone out to keep the family afloat with her incredibly lucrative skill set while Nate, along with Codsworth, kept the home-front alive and well with hard work and dedication. They would laugh at the various children's programs that were on television, Nate would purchase the latest issues of Grognak the Barbarian to read, Nora would go out of her way to burn the latest issues of Grognak the Barbarian to stop Nate from 'reading' the material. Everything was going well, they were the picturesque family of the American dream, and they had everything they could have ever wanted.

And then fate decided to step in.

October 23, 2077.

The day humanity died.

It happened so quickly. Nate had barreled the door open and Nora grabbed Shaun and they both booked it to the Vault that was thankfully nearby. They had signed up to join at quite literally the last minute and made their way to the massive vault elevator with nothing but a baby Shaun in Nora's hands and the clothes on their backs. Both the veteran and the lawyer stood in fear on the vault elevator as it descended into the cold hard earth. They had both watched as a nuclear missile detonated on the Commonwealth and began its terrible path of destruction across the world. They had to watch as a single flash of light had set about the destruction of everything they had ever held near and dear to them.

The only thing left of the world above that they had left with them, was their little bundle of joy that Nora still held in her hands. Thought it pained him to have lost everything on the surface, Nate felt confident in his abilities to carve out a new existence underground. As long as his family had survived, he was happy to have lived through the blasts.

Though shaken up, they marched onwards to be decontaminated so they could be allowed true access to the vault's living quarters. Having put on their assigned suits, they all climbed with purpose into the decontamination pods, smiling as the pods closed, signaling the beginning of their new lives.

Only the pods would lead their fates in a different direction.

It only took a few moments before Nate realized that the 'decontamination' pods where in fact Cryogenic freezing pods. He could feel his panic rise as the freezing cold made his mind wander to the Alaskan front. The frigid cold caused him to experience all of the fear he had felt fighting the Chinese back in Anchorage, the non-stop barrage of artillery shells raining down from above ringing in his ears as if it was happening all over again. The oppressive terror of war was resurfacing in his mind once again.

It was nothing compared to having to watch his wife and son go through the same thing.

Nate could do nothing but watch as Nora and Shaun were frozen inside the pods alongside him and the other survivors. They were the last thing he saw before everything went white with frost.

The next thing he saw was the main turning point in his life.

He was forced to watch helplessly as that monster Kellogg murdered Nora and kidnapped his son. Needless to say, Nate was absolutely infuriated.

To go through everything in Anchorage, everything on October 23, and to lose everything once again to some men in hazmat suits while he was trapped behind glass. It was enough to crush most any man.

But Nate was not your ordinary individual, he was a man who was dedicated to his family.

And even though he had to watch his family die twice in his lifespan, he would be damned if that would stop him from finding Shaun, no matter the cost.

Nate had awoken to find a shattered world that lay beyond the impregnable doors of Vault 111, a world that would more than likely never know peace again. A world perpetually at war with itself, down to the very principles that define its existence. Though he was able to recognize the burned out remains of his old neighborhood, if felt as if he had been placed onto an entirely different world, partly because in a sense, he had.

Though this world had claimed so much from him, it had not stolen everything from Nate. He had found some comfort in being able to reunite with his loyal robotic butler, who had waited loyally for the day his master would return to him. Codsworth was the one to break the news that Nate had been gone for over 200 years.

200 years, and to Nate it had felt like 20 minutes.

Having that bombshell dropped on anyone would have anyone wanting to take a seat to take it all in, and reasonably, Nate choose to do so in his old family home. He had wandered from room to room taking in all that it had to offer him after 200 years of neglect before he stopped just inside of Shaun's old room.

By some cruel twisted fate, it looked almost untouched when compared to the rest of the world. The crib, the dresser, even the rug where still in the same places he remembered them being all those years ago. Without even thinking, he walked over and spun the mobile above the crib. Though its speakers had worn out decades before, Nate didn't need to hear it to know the melody it played, it having been etched into his mind after many restless nights.

Not wanting to live in the past too long, Nate turned his head away from the baby crib, and felt his eyes lock onto the book that laid partially concealed underneath the dresser. With a shaky hand, he reached under and pulled out his son's favorite book, _You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L._ Nate looked at the worn out book for a solid five minutes before he wordlessly pressed the cold, dusty cover to his forehead and closed his eyes, trying to fight back the tears that threatened to spring forth.

He had wanted so hard to be a great father, to teach his son how to play catch, how to ride a bike, how to talk to girls, how to hide things from his wife's prying eyes, the typical American dad. It was his dream to be a great father, to watch his son grow up into an even greater man.

But fate had taken all of that away from him, and left him with nothing but his robotic butler and the book he had read to his son at night.

It was at that moment of weakness that Nate resolved himself to track down the man who killed his wife, the man who stole everything from him, the man who took Shaun. Nate would have his revenge.

And then he would find his son.

Standing up from that spot, Nate materialized the book into his PIP-BOY 3000, where he would keep it by his side, through thick and thin. No matter where Nate went, he brought that silly little child's book with him, never once letting it leave his sight or his PIP-BOY.

Through sheer determination, Nate had managed to track down Kellogg, the man who stole his family. He doesn't remember much about the fight, all he remembered clearly were that there were synths, Kellogg was there, and that Nate won.

As a great big 'fuck you' to the man who kidnapped his son, Nate had come draped in Kellogg's old NCR Ranger Combat Armor that he had brought from California as a memento of his grand achievements back west. Nate found it ironic that the last sight Kellogg ever had on Earth was the view of one of his finest memories beating him to death with his own pistol.

Though everything about Kellogg disgusted Nate, he found that the armor he had never worn was rather decent in construction, even though it was 200 year old riot gear. Ancient riot gear or not, anything that could resist most small arms fire was fine in his book, regardless of its prior affiliation.

Nate had decided that he would put the armor to use for its original intent; protecting the people of the United States from those that would threaten it.

Though he had successfully killed the man responsible for his incredible suffering, Nate was still missing one crucial thing from his life; his son Shaun.

Shortly after their arrival, Nate had teamed up with the Brotherhood of Steel in their quest to destroy the Institute. He not only agreed with their quest to destroy the Institute, the very organization that Kellogg had worked for, but also agreed with their fear of the technology they were producing. Both in the Great War and back in Anchorage, he had seen what happens when technology is left to be produced at unrestricted speeds, and he greatly feared a repeat of events.

Nate truly believed that the Brotherhood, while most definitely flawed and not truly saints, were the best hope for the Commonwealth and perhaps the ruins of America.

There were other choices as well to consider, but they all fell short compared to the BOS. The minutemen had their hearts in the right spot but crucially lacked the equipment, skill, and training to compete in a large scale war. The Railroad were masters at espionage and subterfuge, but that alone was not enough to win a war if you didn't have a sufficient ground force to combat the enemy, which they didn't. Furthermore, they were extremely narrow minded in their goal, ultimately out to help synths and not much else.

And after Nate had successfully infiltrated the Institute, they had become a viable option to consider.

It was without debate that the Institute was hands down the most technologically advanced faction to throw its hat into the ring for control of the Commonwealth. Their synths more advanced, their energy weapons more high tech. Hell even their mode of transportation, teleportation, was far more advanced than anything that even the BOS could produce.

And of course the biggest draw towards the institute was the man who led them.

A man they called Father.

But to Nate, his name was Shaun.

Though he was older than his father, Nate was able to believe what he had said when he claimed to be his long lost son. It was as if fate was slapping him in the face one more time. Nate had been hoping to see his son grow up and become a great man. And here he was, older than his actual father and nearing the end of his life.

Nate had never even gotten the chance to play catch with him.

Nate had hoped to see his son become the embodiment of American values, the values that made America one of the greatest and most respected countries on the Earth. He hoped that Shaun would grow up to do truly great things.

Nate was disappointed, not in Shaun, but in himself.

He hadn't been there to guide Shaun in his development as a child. He hadn't been there to teach him about the world in his teenage years. He hadn't been there as a kind of soundboard for his son's ideas when he became a great man.

And it showed.

His son showed a complete lack of empathy, not even reacting that much to his mother's death, though Nate had supposed he had over 60 years to come to terms with the fact that he would never meet his mother. Shaun showed only a mild dislike for the man who killed his mother rather than the seething hatred Nate held, though again he supposed he hadn't remembered his mom fighting to keep him safe in her arms.

But the scariest thing of all to Nate, was how disconnected from the world above Shaun and the rest of the Institute were. Sure, they more than likely held mankind's future above all other interests, but therein lies the problem, above all other interests. If wiping out an entire settlement to make room for a forward operating base to clean the water supply on the surface, so be it. If they had to slaughter a family and replace them with synths to provide an forward listening post to understand the ebb and flow of wasteland society, so be it.

They placed the future of humanity above humanity itself. They didn't care what they did, having the end justify the means.

The same idealistic view Nate had seen firsthand back in Anchorage. It was the same view the Chinese communists had, and they had gunned down his parents in cold blood. Nate didn't doubt for a second that the Institute would do that again and again if it meant good results or a proven hypothesis.

Nate had hoped and prayed to see his son grow into a great man.

Shaun had developed into the head of a monster.

Nate was unbelievably heartbroken to see the last remnants of his true, living and breathing family turned into a monster at the hands of this broken world. He returned through the teleporter he had constructed at the Boston airport for the Brotherhood to see a small crowd around him, waiting to hear about what the Institute was like, their building layout, their security system, and how many there were. Nate simply walked past all of them to sit on one of the many waiting benches that had survived the war, removed his obsidian black combat helmet and face mask, laid his face in his palms and just sat there. Elder Maxson motioned for everyone to stop talking but didn't say a word. He just sat down next to him and placed his hand on Nate's shoulder, there was no rank there, no orders, just one soldier comforting another. It felt good to have that feeling again, not since Anchorage had Nate felt that kind of comfort.

It felt good to be among those he believed in, and felt comforted that they were there for him.

Nate stood up from his sadness, thanked Maxson for what he did, and together he and the rest of the BOS returned to the Prydwen to talk about what he had seen in the Institute. The vast amount of Intel he spoke about was written down on book after book of tactical data that would be used to formulate an attack plan on the Institute, how to disrupt their defenses, and how to ultimately destroy the facility. The last question asked was from Maxson himself, "Who was their leader?"

That question made Nate freeze up. He knew that he had to tell them, the Brotherhood needed all of the Intel they could get in order to come up with an effective strategy against them. Nate looked at Maxson before sadly shaking his head and looking away before finally speaking. "My son. My son is their leader."

All chatter aboard the Prydwen stopped as everyone looked at the infiltrator of the Institute when he said that. Nate looked up at Maxson, got into a proper standing position, making him look like a proper soldier from before the war and repeated himself, "The leader of the Institute is the man by the name of Shaun Fox. He was born before the war, cryogenically frozen, kidnapped by the Institute and raised there as one of their own. His genetic material is the template for all Gen. 3 synths, hence the term that they refer to him by, father."

Nate looked at the comrades that stood around them, the ones in power armor he was unable to read but those that were without power armor he could, and their faces said it all. Unmistakable sadness and anguish. Every unmasked face looked at the Anchorage soldier with looks of pity and sadness as Nate flat out said that his son was leading the enemy. Even Elder Maxson himself held this expression.

Maxson's unbreakable collectiveness was broken as his best operative told him this information. Sure, it told them that the man in charge was willing to do anything to advance the Institute's goals, no matter the cost, but it also told them that fate wasn't done fucking Nate over yet. Maxson shook his head slowly, "Holy shit" was all he said.

At that point, Maxson told Nate that he could sit out the rest of the conflict if he so choose to do so, no one would blame him for doing so. But Nate had a job to do.

The American soldier rose up to defend his nation from a threat that was most certainly foreign.

Nate spearheaded most of the Brotherhood's ops to secure the necessary resources for the inevitable war with the Institute. He braved the glowing sea numerous times to secure the armaments necessary for arming the Brotherhood with the firepower necessary for knocking down the Institute's front door. He performed espionage act after espionage act from within the Institute to cripple their substructures to ensure they were in a weakened state. He grabbed the Beryllium Agitator to power Liberty Prime. He more or less led the charge into the Institute's main base. He had helped to secure a foothold inside the organization.

He had stood over his helpless son as he died before his very eyes.

Nate stood alone in his son's dreadfully cold room as Shaun laid there dying, with a look in his eyes that questioned why his own father had destroyed everything he had worked to create. "Why are you doing this? Don't you see that this is the future? Is this how you always treated your family?!"

Though he couldn't see Nate's face through the face plate of the X-01 power armor he had acquired during one of his expeditions into the glowing sea, Shaun could tell that that last comment hit him hard. Nate didn't say a word, instead pulling up a chair and sitting next to the bedside of his son's deathbed, uncaring to the sounds of the war that waged around them as the Brotherhood methodically swept through every nook and cranny to eliminate the Institute and purge its evil from the world. Nate paid it no mind, instead slowly running his armored hand through his son's graying hair, softly crying underneath his helmet.

Nate shook his head, "No son, this is not. This is not the future, this is the past. You lost sight of what's truly important, saving people, not the future. Mindlessly following the will of the future is what got the world in this situation in the first place. I saw it happen with my own eyes. I saw as scientists created abominations for the sake of winning a war we all knew wasn't going to end so easily. I saw them run experiments on the very same people they swore to protect. I saw as humanity shot itself in the foot before those bombs ever dropped."

Shaun scoffed, "And following that Brotherhood cult is any better. They horde technology as if they were collecting holy texts from a bygone era. They don't care for the future, they only care about their old world blues and preserving the past. They have no view for the future, only the past."

"No, they don't. They've seen the horrors your synths have unleashed upon the Commonwealth, and rightfully so, have chosen to stop you no matter the cost. I have chosen to stop you. You only see the results on a field report, you don't have to see the people of the Commonwealth losing faith in their fellow man. For fuck's sake, I watched a man murder his own brother based solely on the fact that he MIGHT be a synth. This isn't right Shaun. You weren't there to see as technology ripped everything I loved about this world from me. I had to watch as unleashed ambitions destroyed everything and left nothing but a soulless husk for us to try and scrape out a meager existence. All because someone didn't ask the right people to stop. We're not afraid of technology, we're afraid of what it might do if left unchecked. I'm not doing this to hurt you, I'm doing this to save you."

Nate was practically begging with Shaun at this point, to no avail as Shaun merely turned his head to the side away from his father, already having made up his mind on the whole situation. Nate just sighed and stood up and began to walk out of his son's room, about to join back up with Maxson and the rest of the assault force. But before he had taken more than five steps, he felt himself stop and think back to those stormy days where he would read that special book to his son. He stopped and looked at his inventory, seeing all of the various weapons and tools of the trade he had acquired over his time in the Commonwealth. Under one of the tabs buried beneath a mountain of reports and Intel files, there was the book he had held throughout all of his expeditions, the very book he would read when things ever he thought things were getting too tough to continue on. He materialized the book in his hands, the small book being dwarfed by the massive armored gauntlets it now rested in. He silently thumbed through the pages, not having to read the actual pages as he had remembered the words by heart ages beforehand.

Nate silently turned around and handed the book towards his son. Shaun merely looked at the book quizzically before looking at his father, an unspoken question gracing his looks.

"I want you to have this Shaun. It's the book I used to read to you as a baby. It was your favorite."

Shaun merely glared at him.

"Please Shaun. Please take it."

Nate was begging at this point, he was truly praying that some part of his parenting had manifested somewhere in the mind of his son, even if it was subconscious and not truly recognized. Nate's silent prayer was answered as Shaun took the book and opened the worn cover to look at the equally worn pages held within. Nate watched as Shaun silently read the book, tears streaming down his eyes as he read the book he hadn't seen since before he was one.

Without even thinking about it, Nate reached over and gently hugged the dying man, not caring if he tried something to harm him, he wouldn't blame it. Nate gently patted his son's shoulder, feeling his son returning the gesture brought a ghost of a smile to his face. Nate gently whispered in his son's ear, "You're special, son." He removed himself from the hug and just looked at the man on his deathbed, who simply stared back.

Nate knew it was about time for him to regroup with the assault force for the final assault on the reactor core of the facility, so he decided to say goodbye to his son.

Nate wordlessly materialized the revolver that had claimed his wife's life, the revolver he had yanked out of Kellogg's grasp to deliver the final killing shot and aimed the lethal .44 at his son's head. Nate didn't want Shaun to die again to a nuclear explosion, if he was going to die again, Nate wanted it to be truly painless, Nate didn't want his son to be left alone in the cold hard ground like he had for 200 years, left with nothing but his own thoughts in his final moments. He wanted Shaun to at least to have the dignity to die near his family, and to Nate, this was the only way.

Nate wordlessly cocked the hammer back on the revolver, the clicking sound being much louder to him at that very moment.

"Goodbye Shaun."

Shaun smiled and closed his eyes, holding the small children's book to his heart, "Bye dad."

Then Nate pulled the trigger.

The rest of the fight was a blur to Nate. He and the Brotherhood successfully fought their way to the reactor and successfully planted the device on the main casing of the reactor core. They had managed to grab a handful of technical documents that would be useful in uncovering the secrets of the Institute. After that, they had made their way to the teleportation hub and arrived on a veranda overlooking the old CIT ruins. He had watched as his hand descended upon the detonate button and watched behind tinted glasses as the weapons that had torn the world apart tore his son's life work apart in the flash of searing heat. He and his comrades watched as the CIT ruins crumbled onto themselves under the torrent of immense pressure waves emanating from nuclear hellfire.

They had stared not only at the carnage they had unleashed for the sake of humanity, but more than that, they were looking at the man who had more or less led them to victory. Nate stood there perched against the railing, mindlessly looking at the fires that now marked his son's gravestone. All of his life's actions, everything he had ever done, all he sacrificed had led to this moment.

Nate had to watch his family die two times only to have to kill them one last time. All of his sacrifices and he had next to nothing to show for it. He looked over his shoulder towards the Power Armored soldiers that stood around him, looking at him. Though he couldn't see their faces, he could tell every single one of them was looking at him with admiration for what he had done for them, every single one of them standing proud in the presence of a true American war hero. They were proud to stand by the side of the man who had survived three wars, including one that had claimed the fate of the world.

And Nate had looked back at them, and for a split second, he could have sworn that he saw American stars where there were Brotherhood insignias. Nate felt a small glimmer of hope as he thought about all of the sacrifices they had made to get to this point. These men and women were willing to fight and die to combat evil, no matter what form it takes on, just as his old American comrades had done all of those years ago in the snow fields of Alaska. Nate saw in them a hope for the future, a hope for a better world.

And Nate would fight without hesitation to create that world, so that his fellow man would never have to worry about the hells of the wasteland ever again.

Nate and his comrades returned to the Prydwen, where Elder Maxson announced to the entirety of the Brotherhood of Steel that they had achieved victory over the Institute and announced Nate's promotion to Sentinel, essentially the second in command of the Brotherhood of Steel, at least in this particular chapter of the BOS. Maxson and Nate stood proudly as they stood dominant in the Commonwealth, a force for the betterment of all mankind, no matter the sacrifice or cost. Brave men and women willing to fight the scoundrel and scum of the earth so that someone else may have a brighter future.

Nate stood side by side with his commander as they looked out across the Commonwealth, watching as a pair of Vertibirds flew off to aid in the distress of those who lived there. And for the first time in over 200 years, Nate Fox felt as if he was complete, as if it was all over, that he had finally come out on top, that he had finally vanquished his inner demons that had manifested what seemed like a life time ago in the frozen pods of Vault 111. Nate felt as if fate was finally done with him.

But fate is a fickle thing.

 **AN: And that's chapter one, and absolutely no Zootopia whatsoever. That will show up either next chapter or at the very latest that chapter after that.**

 **And I decided to make Nate an engineering graduate because that is one of the only explanations I could think of to explain why he is able to build so many things.**

 **Thank you for reading, I will see you all next time.**

 **-Alpha 001.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hello guys, I'm here with another chapter of my story, I would just like to take a moment to thank those of you who reviewed my story, thank you for what you all have said for my story, I thank you for your kind words.**

 **Honestly, I was not expecting this story to get the amount of attention that it is getting. Thank you all for the support for this, admittedly, quite strange idea I came up with in the span of about five seconds when I was bored coming home from college.**

 **I would like to take a moment to address some of your comments.**

 **SPARTAN-262: Thank you for your comment and I will try to go easier on the comma usage.**

 **15delgizzij: Thank you for offering to provide support in the form of scientific information. I'm also happy to hear that you were happy to hear that Nate was an engineer (as I said in the last chapter, it was the only way I could think of that would explain his ability to craft turrets and robots.)**

 **Anyways, I guess it is time to get this show on the road, and I do realize I forgot to put a disclaimer in the first chapter, so, better late than never (I'll probably put it in in an update or something.)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Fallout series nor the Zootopia movie, all characters belong to their respective owners.**

 **Anyways, on with the story.**

* * *

Chapter 2:

Nate laid flat on his bed as for the first time in what felt like years, he had nothing to do.

His power armor was being cleaned and repaired from the Institute assault a week ago. The Brotherhood's position in the Commonwealth was stronger and more secure than ever before. The Scribes were busy studying the plans and Intel files they had successfully recovered from the Institute, both during and after the assault. The forward post at the Cambridge Police Station had finally ran out of missions for him to do. The Commonwealth was in a position of relative peace, with only the usual amount of carnage being waged on the already war-torn streets.

Even though it was a good thing that he had nothing to do, Nate had to admit that it was rather boring having nothing to do.

For as long as Nate seemed able to remember, he had had some underlining goal to motivate him and drive him onwards. In Anchorage, the need to avenge his parents and halt the communist advance drove him towards becoming an Army ranger in the 108th regiment. The want to start a family flew him to the Commonwealth and to Boston. The need to escape the bombs that followed led him to the Cryo pods of Vault 111. The lust for revenge had him seek out and eliminate Kellogg. And sheer desperation for something, anything good in his life had driven him to seeking out the Institute to find his long lost son.

And look at all of the good that had come out of it.

Now his country laid dead around him, Nora's corpse was still preserved in that damnable vault, and his son's gravestone was a smoldering hole in the ground that was being vehemently studied by the Brotherhood.

Trying so hard for so long, only to lose everything he had ever fought for was enough to wear out even the toughest of soldiers.

And there was no exception for Nate.

He had been forced to lose everything, he watched as his world burned because someone on the other side of the planet decided that if they couldn't have Alaska, no one could, and some nameless face pressed a button to initiate the end game. The prior Institute leader whose name was long lost to history had decided that they needed a pure genetic sample to create the perfect machine, and had ordered his wife's execution to achieve that goal.

Nate's life had been dictated and directed by people he never even knew existed, the nameless grunt being ordered by the equally nameless commanders.

But now after it all, after everything he had been stripped of, everything he had lost, here he was, second in command in the post-war military. Sentinel of the Brotherhood of Steel, the man who only answered to Elder Maxson himself. The man who had saved the Commonwealth and perhaps even the world from the evils of the Institute.

The Brotherhood had helped him to find purpose once again.

It felt good to finally come out on top for once, for something to finally go his way after too many years of suffering.

Nate gave off a sigh as he rubbed a gloved hand down his face, just trying to relax after everything that had happened to him recently. Even though it was a week ago, the events still laid fresh in his mind.

Though he supposed he had been laying around long enough, the sun had just began to rise above the tainted Atlantic signaling dawn break.

With a slight grunt of effort, Nate hauled himself to his feet and grabbed the ranger combat helmet and accompanying mask that laid on the nightstand next his bed.

Or rather, Danse's bed.

Nate was among the many who were surprised to hear about the Paladin's true origins, with him being a synth and all. Nate had gotten so used to finding synths hiding out in settlements across the Commonwealth that the thought of one having infiltrated the Brotherhood of Steel itself had never even crossed his mind. It never occurred to him that they enemy was among their numbers.

That the man who had helped him get in the Brotherhood was one of them.

That his friend was one of them.

Then the Scribes decoded that Intel file he had retrieved during his first visit to the Institute. It was a gold mine of information, it had a list of every synth that the Institute had out in the field and even those that weren't even created yet.

The Scribes had scrolled through every name and serial number on the list until they had come across one specific name.

Serial Number: M7-97.

Synth Generation: 3.

Designation: Danse.

Current Affiliation: Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel.

Mission: Recon and Analysis.

It had come as a hard blow to many in the Brotherhood. To have one of their strongest and best operatives turn out to be a synth, living on the inside potentially sending sensitive information to their very enemy.

Understandably, it made a lot of the Brotherhood angry at the Paladin turned traitor.

However, Nate and one of his first colleagues in the Brotherhood had stood up for the man become synth and sought to clear his name, regardless of his true affiliation. If it weren't for Scribe Haylen, Nate probably wouldn't have been able to find Danse in time to talk some sense into him.

For Scribe Haylen, she was simply looking out for her commanding officer, something any good soldier would do.

For Nate, it was something deeper.

Nate had been only out of the Vault for a few weeks and was still relatively new to life in the post apocalypse, and even then he had seen enough. Nate had seen a lot of good men and women be claimed by the vices of the wasteland that had claimed so many others. And then, out of the blue came Danse, the man who seemed to be able to stand above it all. Danse was the true embodiment of not only the ideas that made up the core of the Brotherhood, but also those that had made up the country that stood strong two centuries ago. His sense of pride, compassion, and honor were enough to inspire those around him to rally to the cause and fight for what's right. Even when he had his doubts, he stood by the Brotherhood's ways, even as he watched his teammates die around him. Even as he saw the abominations of the Institute run amok the Commonwealth.

Even as he stood in the old listening post arguing for his life.

Nate and Danse had a conversation for what seemed like hours, but was in actuality only about 20 minutes. They had discussed many things down in the forgotten outpost; when the real Danse had been replaced by the synthetic one, what his true alliances were, and ultimately, where he was going in life and what he might do if given a second chance. Sometime during that conversation, something had clicked in Nate's mind. Here he was, talking to a traitor of the Brotherhood of Steel, but at the same time was talking to one of its most loyal members, the man who personified what it meant to be a Brother in steel.

Why would he being a synth change any of that? If he truly was a synth working for the Institute, he had plenty of opportunities to undermine the whole BOS operations here in the Commonwealth. Had he been truly working with the Institute, they would have used him to catastrophic effect earlier on in the campaign to weaken the Brotherhood before they ever even became a threat to the Institute.

It was then that Nate realized that Danse was a traitor.

He was a traitor to the Institute.

Nate was able to see past Danse being a synth, because he had done so much in his time in the Brotherhood that to suspect him of doing anything to harm the Brotherhood seemed absurd.

But that Intel file wasn't lying either.

And in war, you must proceed with the utmost caution, even if doing the right thing meant doing the wrong thing.

But Nate wanted Danse to have the best shot at being as good a person as possible, even though technically he was as much a traitor to the Brotherhood as he was to the Institute.

Nate and Elder Maxson had a very long discussion when said Elder arrived at the old listening post via Vertibird.

While Nate was able to convince Maxson to spare Danse's life, Danse ended up losing the very thing he had worked his entire life for. He was stripped of his position and affiliation with the Brotherhood of Steel, and was branded a traitor to the Brotherhood before the Elder left in his Vertibird, but was allowed to keep his life.

Nate didn't even have to glance at the synth to know what he was going through, he knew that pain of losing the ability to fight for your country all too well. Nate had lost America to the bombs and Danse had lost the Brotherhood due to bad luck.

While Nate was unable to get Danse reinstated into the Brotherhood, he was at least able to rescind the kill order placed on him and set him up with a home in the ruins of his old neighborhood. At least there, he would get some peace, quiet, and plenty of time to create a new life for himself, one that would make him glad that his life had led him in that direction.

Nate knew that Danse certainly had it in him to make it possible, Nate had to do the same thing himself when he first woke up in Vault 111.

Giving a small nod to the former bed of his friend, Nate walked out of his room and into the hustle and bustle that is everyday life aboard the Prydwen. Knights walked to and fro as they endlessly guarded the Prydwen's main systems from would be saboteurs or testing new equipment for field use. The Scribes worked in the mid-deck area as they continued their relentless pursuit in developing new and improved technology for the days that lied ahead, though their research had temporarily stagnated as many of them were busy pouring over the files taken from the Institute.

Nate smiled as he saw his brothers and sisters in arms ready for the work that lay ahead of them in securing the Commonwealth.

Nate began his trek to the grease pit Proctor Ingram affectionately called her home, he had left her his X-01 armor to repair after the Institute assault and wanted to view its repair progress.

He walked through the mess hall, black trench coat flowing behind him and combat helmet secured under his arm. Many of the soldiers eating their morning meals there promptly stood up and saluted their Sentinel.

"Ad Victoriam!"

Nate smiled and returned the salute, "Ad Victoriam, as you were soldiers."

He watched as the men and women returned to their meals and prior conversations with a smile on his face. It was a good change of pace to see men and women ready for anything, even at the crack of dawn. For too long, he had seen the people of the Commonwealth just live their lives without meaning or direction. It wasn't necessarily their fault, there weren't a whole lot of possibilities out in the wastelands. But still it is nice to see some of the hard work ethic that had created, and would ultimately rebuild the United States still survive in this day and age.

Nate finished his reflections as he stepped into the engineering section of the ship and found it to be business as usual. Power Armor frames stood bare in their cradles as scribes and dedicated engineers worked to repair and modify the suits after intense action out in the streets of old Boston. Bits and pieces of the actual armor itself laid against the metal tables as even more engineers meticulously welded and refitted the military grade ceramic and titanium composite armor to survive even the cruelest of attacks. Ballistic and energy weapons stood proudly in their racks, waiting to be grabbed by the brave men and women that made all of this possible, each looking as shiny and new as the day they fell off the assembly line, each one ready for whatever mission that may come.

The Sentinel walked past all of the controlled chaos of the engineering pit before arriving at one of the Power Armor cradles that was currently holding his beloved X-01.

Before the Great War, the American government had only been able to produce the T-60 model of Power Armor, which was the mainstay of the Brotherhood. The X-01 on the other hand had been produced by the American government after the Great War had ended, a faction known as the Enclave.

One of the Brotherhood's most dangerous enemies.

Needless to say, when he had returned from the glowing sea wearing such armor, Nate had received more than a couple pot shots from those who had fought off the Enclave back in the ruins of DC.

It had taken a couple of minutes of frantic explanation to tell the Brotherhood that it was in fact just a lucky find and not some lone Enclave soldier looking to make a last daring stand against the ones that had defeated them.

Those few pot shots were more than worth it when compared to the sheer quality of construction of the X-01, with its durability and protective qualities far out classing anything else the brotherhood could reasonably field.

Honestly, if it weren't for that armor, Nate felt fairly confident that he would have died down in the lower levels of the Institute, where the scientists and remaining synths made their last, daring stand.

It was a shame to see it almost broken by the time he had gotten it secured in its cradle after the battle.

Though most of the damage had been repaired by the collective efforts of Proctor Ingram and the rest of the engineering crew, its back still laid open as the head engineer herself continued to use her soldering gun to reconnect the various wires that needed to be placed back into their respective spots and bring the suit back up to full functionality.

Nate leaned against the cradle and gently knocked on the helm of his power armor, alerting the Proctor to his presence. Ingram looked up and turned off the soldering gun.

"Sentinel Fox. What brings you down here?"

Nate leaned his head around, inspecting the interior of his armor. By the looks of it, most if not all of the interior structural work, minus the wiring of course, had been taken care of. The pneumatic pistons and joints looked combat ready, and he even saw a glimpse of the orange HUD through the lenses of the suit, though it seemed to be flickering on and off sporadically.

Nate looked back at Ingram, "Just checking on my Power Armor. I hope it's not giving you too much trouble."

Ingram just chuckled at Nate, "As if. This Enclave tech is impressive, but not impossible to figure out. We've already repaired the exterior of the suit, reinforced the plating to give you a bit more protection from small arms fire, and fixed the jet pack mod. I still don't know how the damn thing didn't blow up on you when it got shot through by a stray laser round."

Nate merely shrugged as he looked up at the jet pack mod hanging from the ceiling, which looked as good as new.

"Furthermore, I'm just about finished rewiring the electrical circuits on the inside, should take no more than an hour to finish it up, which should be just in time for whatever those engineers on the ground are so excited for." Ingram chuckled and grinned, "I'd suggest you wear it when you go down there, knowing them something is liable to explode as soon as they turn it on."

Nate stepped away from the cradle, "Yeah, do you have any idea what they've been working on down there? I know it has something to do with that teleporter I built to get into the Institute, but the damn thing hasn't worked since we destroyed the Institute. Without a main relay point, that thing is nothing more than a monument to the dangers of technology."

Ingram leaned back in and resumed her work on his Power Armor, "Beats me. Honestly, I kind of thought that we would be done with all of this Institute tech after we, you know, blew it all up. But now, every damn free second of my day that I don't spend on some chump's Power Armor is spent reverse engineering their tech, which is annoying when the field scribes just send back anything that has a spark coming off of it as 'tech', even if it's just a broken light bulb."

She suddenly jumped out of the Power Armor and pointed her soldering gun at Nate, causing him to flinch back a bit, "And speaking of chumps in Power Armor, would you please try and avoid running through a room full of bullets, lasers, and angry synths while carrying around a thermonuclear device, it would make my day a whole lot easier without having to spend most of my day on exclusively your armor."  
Nate turned around and waved her off as he walked away, "No promises."

Nate didn't even have to turn around to know what gesture she was doing as soon as his back was turned. It made him feel a little happy on the inside. Sure it may have been unprofessional to treat his soldiers a bit equally, given the very strict chain of command that was in place here. But the way Nate figured it, these people were almost constantly in high stakes stressful situations where one wrong move would spell the death of you and others. Nate felt that as long as it wasn't anything downright disrespectful and only in the nature of good fun it was alright to blow off a little steam every now and again.

Nate's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the intercom turning on, all unoccupied heads turned upwards in silent anticipation for the message to be sent.

"Sentinel Fox, Senior Scribe Neriah has requested your presence in the research lab. That is all."

Nate turned briskly and made his way up the steel stairs and into the research lab, which more or less overlooked the engineering pit below. Nate stepped into the research lab and was promptly welcomed by the smell of powerful antiseptic chemicals used to keep harmful contaminants at bay. His eyes scanned the room, looking for the Scribe that had requested his presence. He looked over the numerous tables, upon which feral ghouls, super mutants, and gen 1 and 2 synths alike laid flat, their innards on display to the scientists who inspected them to uncover their secrets. The scribes not busy with dissections where hunched over microscopes, studying the composition of the deceased specimens that laid mere feet from where they were. Off in one corner of the lab, he spotted a pair of live mole rats, who had a pair of scribes watching and recording their actions.

All further observations were halted as he heard his name called from one of the far corners of the room, and saw Senior Scribe Neriah waving him over to come to her.

Knowing that she wouldn't call the Second in Command himself unless it was pretty important, Nate walked over to the rather eccentric Scribe.

Neriah stepped away from the specimen she had been studying, removed the gloves she had been wearing, and stood in one of the few open plots of land the research lab had to offer.

Neriah shook the Sentinel's hand, "Thanks for coming to see me on such short notice."

Nate smiled, "It's not a problem, but I can tell that something else is."

"And you are absolutely right, come along and I'll explain."

Neriah led Nate over to a table, upon which stood several vials that Nate quickly recognized as X-111, a compound she had developed to help combat the problems associated with radiation exposure. It was no exaggeration to state that her research into X-111 easily held the potential to help the people of the nuclear scorched earth finally adapt to the hell that is their world. It held incredible qualities that helped to keep the user of the serum safe from even the fiercest of rad storms. Though it being among the first of its kind, it had drawbacks. X-111 was very difficult to manufacture and did not last very long, the effects only lasted about 30 minutes before one became susceptible to radiation once again.

Needless to say, her request probably had something to do with furthering X-111's abilities, seeing as it was her main pride and joy.

His question was answered moments later as she gestured towards the bottles on the table, "This, as I'm sure you know is X-111, it has proven to be very effective in keeping our field scibes safe from too much radiation exposure and has even allowed us to explore places that we never thought penetrable before. However, you and I both know that it is not without its limitations, namely its short effective duration."

Nate nodded in agreement, "Yeah, it only lasts 30 minutes. Enough to keep you alive long enough to get out of a rad storm or survive an encounter with that Atom cult, but not much else."

"Yes. That is exactly the problem. If we could somehow make the effects last longer and more pronounced, we could provide our scribes with the same level of protection as a suit of Power Armor without having to lug around said Power Armor, allowing them to reach things that the Knights just can't reach when they are closed in their suits and get down narrow corridors that all together halt a Knight's progress."

Nate raised a finger in question, "Well, why don't you just use Hazmat suits then? Same radiation protection as the Power Armor without the bulk."

Neriah shook her head, "Too risky. Sure it'll protect you just fine from radiation. But what if it gets ripped open by something they didn't see, or gets punctured in a fire fight? They'd be left with no protection and at the mercy of deadly gamma waves. Also there are next to no defensive qualities to a hazmat suit during a fight. It would be much more beneficial to have someone take an improved X-111 serum and wear more effective armor."

Nate nodded his head, "Good point."

"Which is exactly why I need fresh blood samples from the creatures that have adapted to the constant bombardment of radiation and have become resistant to their harmful rays."

Nate wordlessly pointed over to the mole rats that were busy scurrying around in their cage.

Neriah, once again, shook her head, "Not exactly what I had in mind. I've already tried it with mole rats, and while yes they have adapted well to their environments they aren't truly unscathed by its touch. What I have in mind is something that has become a true master of its environment, something that was practically engineered to survive in this world, something like this."

Neriah reached down into the drawer below the table and brought out a red folder simply labeled 'X-111 Program'. Nate took the document from her hand and gave her a quick glance as he opened the page to view its contents.

The first few pages was nothing more than preliminary data that was already known to Nate, as he had helped her out in her initial research, having gathered the blood samples himself. Nate looked over the subsequent pages before his eyes spotted what she had in mind. He felt himself stare at what she wanted him to do before he closed the document and dropped it back on the table and took a deep breath to try and calm himself. He repeatedly breathed in and out deeply so that he could keep himself as calm as possible when he finally addressed Neriah.

Feeling confident in his abilities to do so, Nate turned to the Scribe.

"Why the hell do you want me to catch a Mythic Deathclaw?"

The Scribe was quick to respond, "Think about it Sentinel, what other creature is as perfectly at home in the glowing sea under a constant barrage of radiation than the deathclaw, specifically the Mythic derivatives? They show no duress under constant bombardment of radiation, we've never recorded any diseases caused by radiation in the corpses we've recovered. And there are few things, if any, that are hardier than they are."

Nate raised his hand to stop her, "I know, I know all of that. But still my question stands. Why do you want me to catch one? Wouldn't it be easier to track one down, kill it, and take its blood sample like I've done in the past?"

"No, because by the time the blood sample got here, it would have decayed beyond the point of being useful. In order to further my research any further beyond the point I'm already at, I am going to need fresh samples, and the only way I can do that is if I have a live specimen here. And the only ones tough enough to provide the right kind of blood and plenty of it are deathclaws."

Nate stared at her for a few seconds before he picked up the folder and re-read it.

Among those who called the Brotherhood of Steel family, Nate was hands down the one most experienced with the dangers of the glowing sea. He knew more about the place and the creatures that lived within than pretty much everyone else in the Brotherhood combined. He had the most experience with life in the glowing sea, the most combat experience, and most importantly for this particular op, the most experience in fighting deathclaws.

While it is highly dangerous to do so, it is in fact possible to fight off deathclaws single handedly and win. Nate had proven that a mere day into his life in the Commonwealth, having successfully killed one by himself to protect trapped settlers inside an old Revolutionary war museum. Among the Brotherhood, Nate was considered an expert in both tracking down and killing deathclaws, his kill count in doing so higher than almost anyone else's in the entire Brotherhood.

In short, Nate knew that he was the best candidate for this job. And thus, he knew that for any chance at all for this X-111 to be improved, he would have to go into the glowing sea, track down one of the most dangerous creatures the world had ever produced, capture it alive, and haul it all the way back to base.

Nate sighed as he rubbed his hand down is face in annoyance.

He looked at Neriah and resigned himself to fate, "Yeah, I'll do it. Just give me some of that X-111, I'm going to need it if I'm going to the glowing sea without my X-01."

Neriah was beaming as she handed Nate the vial, "Thank you so much Sentinel, I promise you I will use your efforts to create an even better version of X-111, something that could turn out to become one of the greatest medical advances in post-war history."

Nate felt a ghost of a smile form on his lips at her optimism, "You sure it will work?"

"Absolutely not. But that's what science is all about right?"

And just like that, the ghost smile was gone.

Neriah looked down at her computer and typed a few things before looking back up, "All right, I've just ordered a vertibird loaded with one extra-large trap cage to be waiting for your arrival. It should be sitting out on the flight deck waiting for you by the time you get out there. Good luck Sentinel Fox."

Nate sighed and shook his head as he began his trek to the flight deck. He looked at the combat helmet before he placed it over his head and turned on the lenses of the mask, briefly turning his world into an intense shade of red before the lenses acclimated and his vision returned to normal. Even though they already had been, he could feel the knights and scribes giving him some extra room as he moved amongst them. And who could blame them, clad head to toe in black armor with the only other coloring being his piercing red eye lenses, he was a truly intimidating sight to those around him.

He made his way to the ladder that led down to the deck below and climbed down, arriving on the deck below just as Elder Maxson stepped off of the bridge and watched as his Sentinel stopped in front of him. Nate quickly snapped into a saluting pose.

"Elder Maxson."  
Maxson promptly returned the salute, "Nate."

They both dropped their salutes as Maxson eyed the gear that Nate was currently cloaked in. Maxson would never openly admit it to anyone, but whenever Nate went around while wearing his full suit of armor, it was unnerving to see the man from the past carry himself with such purpose and drive. The suit from the past complimented the man from Anchorage almost as if it were a second skin. Its intimidating visage matching the intimidating skills of the man that stood underneath.

Needless to say after having seen everything Nate was capable of in his operations throughout the Commonwealth, Maxson was more than a little relieved that he had elected to join the Brotherhood.

Maxson motioned towards the armor Nate was wearing, "You going out on an op Sentinel?"

Nate snapped to a parade rest as he replied, "Yes sir, Senior Scribe Neriah has requested me to retrieve a live specimen so that she could work to improve the X-111 serum."

Maxson smiled a little, "That is an amiable goal she has set out. But why ask you specifically? I'm sure that one of our squads of knights should be more than able to capture most anything that lives out in the Commonwealth."

"Sir, she wants me to go into the glowing sea to catch a Mythic Deathclaw and bring it back to base. She's already requested the Vertibird and accompanying cage to contain the creature."  
Maxson's smile fell, but he made no movement to object, "Hmm, she must be desperate to advance her research if she's trying to get her hands on one of those." The elder sighed as he rubbed his hand down his face, "Alright, well since you're the best at hunting down those abominations, I'll leave this op up to you. Good luck out there Sentinel, stay safe."  
Maxson reached his hand out to shake Nate's hand, which Nate gladly returned, "Thanks, and please try to keep the scribes down below from blowing up that teleporter until at least I get back to see it happen."

Maxson chuckled, "No promises. They say they'll be done before the day's end, perhaps even by the time you get back from your little trip."  
Nate smirked underneath his helmet before he turned around and walked out onto the flight deck, quickly seeing one of the Vertibirds being loaded up with fuel and ammunition with an incredibly sturdy looking cage hanging beneath it suspended by multiple sets of chains.

While it wasn't as securely attached as it could have been to an old cargo helicopter from back before the war, one had to make do with what they had out in the apocalyptic wasteland, and the Brotherhood was no exception. While they had plenty of Vertibirds taken from old military and Enclave bases and trap cages taken from the remains of Raven Rock, they sadly had no real way of transporting them other than strapping them to the underside of the Vertibirds and hoping that the chains would hold for long enough for them to get to and from wherever they needed to go. The Brotherhood rarely ever used them for their intended purposes, rather they were commonly used as makeshift prison cells when there was no easy access to legitimate holding facilities.

But today, Nate would be putting one of them to its proper use.

Nate approached the Vertibird and saw one of the technicians nod in his direction and then proceed to continue to load supplies onto the aircraft. He made sure everything was secured before he stepped back and walked towards Nate.

The technician wiped the sweat off his brow as he turned towards Nate, "All right Sentinel, your Vertibird is fully loaded up and ready for your mission. I don't know what your mission is, but whatever it is I wish you the best of luck." He finished by giving the Sentinel a customary salute, "Ad Victoriam."

Nate saluted him back before he climbed aboard the Vertibird and took his seat in the back. He made sure that he had everything he would need for his mission before he gave the pilot an all clear telling him that he was ready for takeoff.

The pilot gave a thumbs up before he began turning on the aircraft's main systems and began communicating with flight control.

"Prydwen central, this is Trapper-1, requesting permission for takeoff."

"Granted Trapper-1, standby for disconnection."

"Copy that Prydwen Central, powering up rotors to maximum thrust."

Nate instinctively gripped his seat as he felt the helicopter begin to shake within its housing aboard the Prydwen, before suddenly he felt the aircraft drop as it was lowered manually via mechanical arm away from the airship to ensure a safe takeoff away from the Prydwen.

Nate looked at the pilot as he grabbed the flight stick with both hands and began to speak with the crew members of the flight deck once again, "Prydwen Central, we are at full throttle, ready for detachment."  
"Copy that Trapper-1, releasing in 3…2…1… release."

As soon as they said release, Nate felt the aircraft break free from its clamp and began its trip away from the airship.

"Prydwen central, successful launch, all systems go."

"Roger that Trapper-1, you're airspace is clear and you are clear for departure, happy hunting out there, out."

The pilot began to maneuver the aircraft towards the mainland, keeping a steady pace and heading before he glanced over his shoulder to the Sentinel behind him, "Sentinel Fox, where exactly are we going sir?"

Nate looked at him as he took out a .50 caliber sniper rifle and began to look over its construction trying to find anything that could potentially break on his mission, "Take us to the edge of the glowing sea, I've got a deathclaw to hunt down."

The pilot turned back to look out of the cockpit, "Roger that sir, I'm not even going to ask why."

Nate settled in for the long flight ahead of them, as the glowing sea was reasonably far away from the Prydwen and the main Brotherhood outposts. He turned to look out over the landscape, simply taking his time to gaze out over the land. Up here in the Vertibird, the world almost looked peaceful, a calming light shining down from the still rising sun, glinting off the remnants of windows of the nearby skyscraper ruins as the helicopter passed them by. He looked down, seeing only the barest amount of life scurrying beneath the hull of the Vertibird. Barely audible over the roar of the blades, Nate could make out the sounds of distant gunfire being exchanged down in the ruins below, probably raiders fighting amongst themselves or something similar.

However, that conflict was not his concern. He turned his head back to look out of the front of the cockpit, looking onwards as the Vertibird drew ever nearer to its destination. Already, the sickly greenish-brown glow as visible over the horizon as they drew ever nearer to one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Nate leaned back in his seat as he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get some rest before he arrived at the glowing sea and had to begin tracking down one of the most dangerous creatures the world had ever seen.

So far, it had been a good morning for Nate.

* * *

Elsewhere…

It had not been a good morning.

Both roommates of the small two bedroom apartment had made the terrible mistake of sleeping in that morning and were now paying the price in doing so.

"Nick! Come on, we are going to be late again if you don't hurry it up right now."

The annoyed rabbit by the name of Judy Hopps thumped her foot incessantly against the wooden floor of their apartment as she stood outside the bedroom door of her roommate and best friend Nick Wilde.

The only response she got was a soft rustling of bedsheets and a silent chuckle from the fox on the other side of the door. Judy felt enraged that by the sounds of it, he wasn't even out of bed yet and more than likely not even close to ready for the day ahead.

Unlike her, who had finished getting ready a mere 20 minutes after her alarm had awoken her an hour and a half before.

Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde had been partners in the police force of Zootopia pretty much ever since the Night Howler incident a mere six months ago. Six months, and it seemed almost like a life time ago. Since then, the dangerous and rage-inducing plant had been methodically removed from the environment in an attempt to prohibit any kind of repeat of events from ever happening again by an environmental group that had gladly taken up the task free of charge. Zootopia had had its fill of savage rampage at the hands of primal predators who had lost their sense of civility all because of a small, innocent looking plant.

And Zootopia had its fill of Bellwether, the innocent looking sheep who had sought to drive a wedge between prey and predator. Bellwether had a pathological drive to have prey species become the dominant species of Zootopia and drive predators into becoming essentially sub-citizens. She had sought to belittle predators in her idea of a perfect society, though her exact reasons for doing so remained largely unknown. Some thought it was because of how Mayor Lionheart had treated her, some thought it was because something had happened to her in her childhood.

Most thought that it was just blind speciesism.

Whatever her reasoning, she was ultimately caught, tried, and jailed for creating a city wide panic and for making prey and predator warry of one another after so many years of peace between the two sides.

The very thing Zootopia was founded to combat.

Zootopia was a place that was supposed to be a city in which prey and predator could forget their ancestral rivalries and work together to create a brighter and better future, free of the petty rivalries that had claimed so many lives before any attempt to combat their primal urges had been made. Zootopia was a standing monument to the idea that those ancient rivalries could be beaten, that prey and predator could live together in relative harmony.

Bellwether had sought to undermine over two centuries of progress because she simply disagreed with the status quo.

While that specifically wasn't the reason Judy Hopps had joined with the force as the first rabbit police officer, she did enlist to help those who were unable to defend themselves.

And if that meant she had to uncover some deep, dark plot that sought to drive people into holding grudges against one another simply because they had been born a different species, so be it.

Honestly though, it would have been impossible for her to have solved that case at all if it wasn't for the silver tongued fox by the name of Nick Wilde.

It was because of him that she was able to get the crucial first lead on the case.

It was because of his assistance and bravery throughout the case that she had recommended him to join the ZPD in the first place.

It was because of him that she was about to be late to work.

"Nick! You had better get out here in the next five seconds or I am going to barge down that door and drag you out here myself."

She heard a chuckle and could practically hear his smirk growing from the other side of the door, "Wow Cottontail, I didn't know you wanted to get into my room that badly, though I think your chances would be better if you simply asked."

Judy huffed angrily. Nick would always do things like this. He would always try and derail her and others by making side statements to throw people off of what they were originally talking about to buy him crucial time to get things inside their heads, an old trick from his conman days.

Annoyingly, it often worked.

Because as Judy was trying to come up with a decent enough retort, Nick had stepped out wearing his police uniform and carrying his trademark sunglasses in one paw before he gently put them into one of his breast pockets.

"Oh by the way, I've been ready for five minutes. I just couldn't resist seeing the face you make when you're angry. It makes you look so adorable." He then reached down to gently pinch one of her cheeks with a massive grin on his face.

Judy grumbled angrily as she grabbed Nick's hand firmly, eliciting a yelp from the now captive fox, and proceeded to drag him out of their apartment and into the hallway before letting him go to lock the door behind them.

Nick looked forlornly at the door before giving off a small whimper, "But I didn't even get breakfast."

Judy put her hands on her hips in annoyance, "Well, then maybe you should have left your room five minutes ago you dumb fox. Now come on, we've got to get going if we are going to make it in time for our morning meeting."

Nick sighed, but followed his partner out of the building and into the concrete jungle that surrounded them.

Zootopia was a place that proudly claimed that 'anyone can be anything.' And it showed. Moving about all along the streets were animals of varying shapes and sizes, all with equally varying outfits. They moved along their daily routines, each and every one looking out for themselves as they sought to live out their lives as peacefully as possible, each one trying to improve upon what they had. The streets were a scene of peaceful chaos as the various mammals were guided by a set of laws that were set in place to ensure the peace.

The kinds of laws Nick Wilde has historically 'skirted' around.

For most of his life, Nick gladly indulged in the stereotype set upon him by society. If society was only ever going to see him as a conniving manipulative mammal that wanted nothing more than to be a leech on society, why should he try and be anything more if that was all they would ever see him as. He would happily live up to their expectations if it meant a bit of the money that usually came with conning the mammals of Zootopia.

And for the longest time, that was how Nick Wilde lived. Conning the more clueless mammals out of their money day after day with his partner in crime Finnick, Nick had eked out a living by running daily cons on the mammals of Zootopia and scraping by day by day. While he would never openly admit this to anyone but Judy, for the longest time, he had felt like a true nobody. Even though there was little he could do about it, he felt that by living out the stereotype placed upon him by society, he had just accepted his role in becoming a faceless nobody. A nobody with no true friends, no living family, not even a home to call his own instead living out of a bridge in the middle of one of Zootopia's numerous parks.

That changed, when a rookie cop by the name of Judy Hopps had successfully hustled the hustler.

The rookie cop had successful bested him at his own game, the charismatic fox being beaten out by a small carrot pen that doubled as a recorder. Such a small little device had sent his entire life careening in an entirely different direction. Nick never would have put money down on the possibility that a small little bunny and an even smaller carrot pen would have been the things that had improved his life to no end. Having taken down Bellwether and stopping the rampage of the savage predators, Nick finally felt true and unmistakable happiness as he heard the roaring crowds cheering for the very fox they had once shunned. It felt nice to finally be recognized for doing something good rather than something he was expected to do.

That was what had driven him to dropping his old conman habits and instead become a police officer, dedicating his life to protecting those he had once swindled.

Though currently, he was regretting that life decision.

In having given up the conman lifestyle, he had given up the ability to make up his own hours and play by his own rules. Now living the life of a law abiding police officer, he had to follow a set of protocols his former self would never have followed.

Including arriving to work on time.

Nick was somewhat winded by the time he and Hopps had ran through the doors of the ZPD station and into the main lobby of the building. Nick placed his paws down on his knees as he worked to catch his breath after having to run a couple of city blocks in order to arrive at the station on time. As he stood there, hunched over trying to catch his breath, his gaze wandered over to his partner in fighting crime.

Judy Hopps.

The small bunny from a small rural town didn't even look winded after having to sprint to arrive on time. Why would she be, she had graduated at the top of her class in the Police Academy and was one of the most determined officers he had ever seen. Her strength and determination were nearly unmatched amongst even the most veteran of officers, often putting her at odds with even the chief of police himself at times. It was thanks to her rabid determination that the city had been saved by the Night Howler menace. It was thanks to her that Nick was able to turn his life around.

It was thanks to her that Nick had found a new, better calling in life.

Nick felt happy that things had come out well for him in the end.

All because he had been conned by the rookie.

All further reminiscing on the past was abruptly halted as at the far end of the lobby, a massive cape buffalo leaned his head out of the bullpen door.

"Hopps! Wilde! Get your lazy tails in here now!"

Judy immediately ran towards the door while Nick begrudgingly got to his feet and sauntered after his much more energetic partner. They both walked in to see that every other officer had already taken their respective place amongst the various tables in the room, each and every one giving their full attention to the board and Chief of police in front of them.

Nick and Judy made their way to their designated seat, with them being so small compared to the other officers they had elected to share one rather than each taking up a whole chair. They looked up after taking their seats to see the Police Chief Bogo take his place behind his podium before addressing those present.

"Thank you all for coming. And for some of you, that means thank you for making it on time."

The party in question visibly flinched at his gaze, before Bogo began to speak again.

"Now, on to the business at hand."

Bogo leaned down to pick up a stack of folders that had been situated upon his desk and pulled out a pair of reading glasses so he could accurately read them.

"We have been given an anonymous tip-off that there is to be a street race held at noon sharp in the southern section of Sahara Central. I want Officers Joe, Link, and Grizzoli to take a couple of squad cars out and try and stop it before it happens. Don't let them put our citizens in danger."

As soon as the Chief had finished, the aforementioned jaguar, zebra, and lion walked up to the podium and each grabbed a copy of the papers that laid within the folder before walking out of the room to do their jobs.

The chief looked down at the next folder, "Next case. We've gotten reports of a few break-ins at small scale retail stores. Probably nothing more than a few punks trying to make a quick buck or two. I want Officers Fangmeyer and Wolford on down to the most recent break-in location, see if you can sniff anything out and find out who's been stealing from them."  
As before, the listed officers grabbed their case files and walked out of the room, the two wolves already discussing the details of the case as they walked out.

Nick yawned and stretched before he elbowed Judy softly to get her attention before whispering in her ear, "It's amazing that in a city as big as Zootopia that there are literally no interesting problems going on. Can't we get an interesting case for once?"

Judy sharply swatted away Nick's arm in irritation, "Shut up Nick! You'll get us in even more trouble."

Nick looked at her for a second before he chuckled and shook his head before looking up.

Right into the face of a very annoyed cape buffalo.

The sudden close proximity made Nick jump in his seat and put a paw over his heart as he somewhat overreacted to Bogo's catching him.

Bogo in return just stared at the eccentric lupine, "May I continue Officer Wilde?"

Nick quickly nodded his head, "Yeah, go ahead chief."

Bogo grunted before stepping away to return to the podium. "You should be careful what you wish for Wilde, you might just get it."

Bogo then picked up the last folder on the podium before looking at both Judy and Nick, "And by might, I mean you are getting it."

Bogo then opened the file, "This is the big one mammals. We have been getting reports from all over the city of predators being kidnapped. Most of it happens in the lower parts of towns on those that have been less than fortunate. As a result we don't have an accurate number as to how many have been taken or how long this has been going on for, but one is enough to get me suspicious after the Bellwether debacle a few months back. Furthermore, they seem to be taken from all across the spectrum, from bears to even small rats, it seems as if all predators are being targeted. The kidnappings appear to be completely random with no motive nor lead suspects to go on. Not even a picture of a single one of the kidnappers has been found so far."

Bogo walked back to Judy and Nick and handed them the folder, each one taking a copy of the case to read over, "Seeing as how you two were the ones to take down Bellwether after a similar situation had reared its head, I'm leaving this one up to you two. Don't disappoint me."

The chief then turned to the rest of the officers present, "As for the rest of you, you already have your assigned duties. Good luck out there and stay safe."

All of the officers stood up from their seats and proceeded out of the bullpen and back out into the lobby, with Nick and Judy being the last to leave.

Nick stretched his arms out behind his back, "Well, at least we got a good case, right Whiskers?"

Nick was immediately punched in the arm by his partner in retaliation.

"You're such an idiot Nick. You could have gotten us in so much trouble talking like that while Bogo was giving us our instructions for the day.

Nick smirked and looked at Judy from the corner of his eye, "I could have, but I didn't."

Judy just growled angrily as she stormed towards the front desk and Office Clawhauser to get the keys to their police cruiser for the day.

Nick's smirk grew wider as he watched the enraged rabbit walk away angrily. Though he would never openly and purposely hurt his best, and only, friend, he would by no means stop teasing her just for the sake of teasing her. Sure it was nice to see her get so riled up with such few words, but he would only ever tease her. The last thing he would ever want is to hurt his one and only friend. Nick hated to see her sad.

It felt so long ago but was only in actuality only six months ago. She had just made a huge breakthrough in her case and he had retreated back to his humble abode beneath the park bridge. He wasn't exactly on speaking terms with her since she had said some unsavory terms describing predators during a news speech she clearly wasn't ready for. He watched and listened as she poured her heart out to him and broke down on the spot as the pressure of her duties got to her and she buckled. She looked so defeated, her once stalwart sense of duty was shattered as the crushing pressure of reality slammed into her hard, shattering her optimism. It was at that moment in which he looked at the bunny crying in the shadow of his home, as she cried at the suspected loss of one of her friends and her case that Nick Wilde realized something about himself.

He liked her. He liked her a lot.

Sure at the time he liked her more as a friend, but during his training at the academy and his early days as an officer on the beat, she had stood there by his side supporting him. He had never had that kind of support from anyone excluding his family, but even his familial support was somewhat fractured with him never knowing his father and his mother rarely being around due to her having to constantly work to keep the water running and the house warm.

But the more she stood by him, the more Nick fell for Judy.

By now, Nick had developed a strong crush on the eccentric rabbit, and he was dreadfully afraid that it might develop into something stronger. He wasn't quite sure how he would be able to deal with that if he did fall for her even more than he already had.

Honestly, after all the time they had spent with one another doing the various tasks assigned to them from the ZPD, he had learned to overlook the species difference and see Judy for who she was; an incredible and determined woman. The kind of woman he would gladly follow into the line of duty, the kind of woman that made the impossible, possible.

The kind of woman that he could find himself falling in love with.

Nick was shaken out of his stupor by the sound of jingling keys directly next to one of his ears, causing him to turn and look at the subject of his thoughts who wore a smirk on her face.

"So there is someone living inside of there."

Nick smirked, "Yep, though it does get lonely if I'm left alone there for long. Would you like to keep me company?"

Judy chuckled and softly pushed on his shoulder, "Stupid fox. Come on, let's go."

Nick returned the chuckle and followed her down to the motor pool, where cruisers of all shapes and sizes were parked or being worked on by the team of mechanics on call that morning. A few were currently being driven by some of the officers who had been at the morning meeting, and were already off to help protect the people of Zootopia from those who sought to do it harm. A quick look around the motor pool and they saw the cruiser that had been given to them for the day's duration, one of the smaller cruisers that had been specially built for the smaller officers.

The two officers made their way to their cruiser and promptly took their seats within, Judy taking the driver seat with Nick riding shotgun. The two of them just sat there for a minute, not even bothering to start the car yet. The silence persisted for a minute before Nick looked over at Judy, who seemed to be in deep thought, staring straight ahead and her hands gripped firmly on the steering wheel.

Nick looked at her and smirked, "What's wrong Cottontail, contemplating the universe over there?"

She shook her head, "No, just thinking about where to start with this case. I mean I know we have to go into the lower ends of town, but I just don't know specifically where. There are too many unknown variables to answer, too many blanks to fill in. We know next to nothing on this whole case. No witnesses, no prime suspects, no apparent motives, no patterns, just nothing but a list of missing predators that might not even be complete."

She heard chuckling coming from her passenger before Nick talked again, "You forgot who you're partnered with Judester, I can talk to the people on the street, the ones who see everything. You just take us to a spot near one of the more recent kidnappings, and if there's any dirt to be picked up one them, I'll find it."

"And you're sure that we'll be able to find anything on any of these people?"

Nick sighed and looked over, "No I don't. But we have to try, right Cottontail?"

Judy smiled as she started the cruise, "It's not much, but at least it's a plan. I just hope this day goes alright."  
Nick smirked as the car pulled out of the motor pool and onto the streets of Zootopia, "Come on Judy you worry too much. I mean, what's the worst that can happen today?"

* * *

 **AN: Well, there's chapter 2, I hope that you all liked it.**

 **And yes, I'm among the leagues of fans that ship Judy and Nick, sorry I can't help it, their chemistry in the movie is so good that it is easy to see them as more than friends, but don't worry I'm not going to have them rushing into a relationship or anything like that. For now, they're just friends and I might even change my mind on making them together if I feel like the story would suffer in doing so.**

 **Also in regards to update times, my schedule is rather unpredictable so my times in updating this story will also be rather unpredictable, I'm sorry I can't offer anything on a regular and predictable basis.**

 **I don't feel like there is a whole lot more I can say other than thank you all for reading.**

 **I'll see you all next time.**

 **-Alpha 001**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hey there, I'm here with another chapter of my story, I hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out, and I do apologize if it is not all that good of a chapter, a lot of shit happened to me in the past week that I had to deal with. So my mind did kind of wander a bit while writing this chapter, so again, for that I apologize.**

 **Now I just want to address a few comments that I read.**

 **Superdale33: Thank you kindly for that feedback, I will definitely take it into account. Looking back on the previous chapters, I do have to agree with you in that I do feel like I did kind of go off on tangents here and there, and I will try and limit those or at least make them more relevant to the story. And I will try to include more dialogue into the story rather than just explaining everything through text (Even though I feel that I suck at dialogue, I will do my best.)**

 **G1111: There will not be stuff from the Automatron DLC because I do not have it and I feel that it doesn't add a whole lot to the whole of Fallout 4 to be worth including.**

 **Link01742: Hooray! Someone got the reference.**

 **Welp, it's time for that wonderful and joyous disclaimer, yay.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Fallout series nor the Zootopia movie, all characters belong to their respective owners.**

 **Anyways, onto the story.**

Nate leaned back in his seat aboard the Vertibird as it took off from the ground at the edge of the glowing sea to return back to base in the shadow of the Prydwen. He let out a sigh as he removed his helmet and began to breathe deeply as he attempted to get some rest after his mission in hunting down a Mythic Deathclaw.

With the constant storms of the glowing sea kicking up an endless screen of radioactive dust, it was quite difficult to find anything in the depths of the sea, let alone something that is moving around. It takes quite a set of skills to hunt down one of the most fearsome hunters the world has ever seen and then to defeat it in its very own home.

The kind of skills that Nate had.

He had acquired his impressive hunting techniques during his quest to track down his wife's killer as he traveled side-by-side with one of the best detectives he had ever known, Nick Valentine.

It was certainly an experience traveling with a synth who was based off of an old police man from the days before the bombs fell of the same name. Nate had grown quite attached to the synth detective during his travels throughout the Commonwealth, tracking down those who thought they could escape justice by diving into the chaos of the Boston Ruins. They had tracked down many a criminal who had done terrible things to those who were just trying to survive the day to day ordeals of post apocalypse life in the broken world around them and thought they could escape in the chaos of modern day life.

Hell, they had even tracked down one of the most notorious criminals from the days before the bombs fell, a man turned ghoul by the name of Eddie Winters.

Nick Valentine had held a grudge on the man for over 200 years, wanting nothing more than to drive a bullet through his skull for taking the life of his wife before the world had even ended.

Nate could understand that unrelenting drive as well as Nick could.

That drive to track down the one who stole everything you ever loved from you, the one who had done terrible things to you and your loved ones. It's enough to drive men to go to the ends of the earth to seek justice. And for Nick it meant tracking down a man who had been in hiding for 200 years for the sake of revenge. Nate had tagged along in his aid both in thanks of his assist in tracking down Kellogg and because he could understand the kind of rage that comes along with losing the one you love to a madman trying to meet his own agenda, regardless of what happens to those around him.

Compared to having to search through the rubble of all of the precinct departments of the Boston Police Department, finding a single deathclaw in the glowing sea was a piece of cake. The skills he had acquired working side by side with the legendary synth detective had made it so.

Nate leaned over the side of the vertibird and looked down at the trap cage hanging below, and saw the hate filled eyes of the Mythic Deathclaw staring right back at him. Nate knew that the creature wanted nothing more than to break free of its confines and tear him apart limb from limb.

Catching the creature was by no means an overly difficult task once Nate had successfully tracked the beast down. All he had to do was get its attention, which was easy enough by taking pot shots at it with a pipe rifle, and then lead the creature to the trap-cage and get it inside by playing the part of the bait and then slipping out at the last moment.

All in all, an easy ordeal to partake in.

Now here he was, resting his weary muscles on the vertibird as it flew him and his cargo back to the Boston Airport Base to be relieved of his cargo and check on his gear and his rad levels.

Nate sat up and looked at the pilot of the aircraft, "Hey pilot. How long until we're back to base?"

"About half an hour till we arrive sir, I'll let you know when we get into visual range."

Nate sighed, leaned back in his seat, and looked back out over the decrepit landscape. He looked at the rocky mounds and burnt sticks where there were once green rolling hills and lush fertile forests. He felt a tinge of sadness flow through him as his mind wandered back to the days before the war. To the days where he could take his family in his Corvega for a calming drive through the countryside. Back before the days of constant peril and destruction.

He couldn't help but lament about the days that would never be. Never again would his world know a day in which the men and women wouldn't have to claw their way to survival. The days of simply walking into a store to get their supplies for the day were gone forever.

From now to potentially the end of the earth itself, mankind would be at war for survival, as they had been for millennia.

He looked back down at the cage in which his quarry was currently held in, watching it as it swung around on its chain as the creature within moved about in its cramped quarters, finding the scene somewhat symbolic of what mankind was currently in.

The earth was their cage, and they had nothing but rage and anger to accompany them inside of it.

Nate chuckled as he began to wonder how in hell Noriah planned to get a blood sample from the hyper-lethal creature. Knowing Noriah, it would more than likely end in catastrophe, one dead deathclaw, and a whole lot of angry knights.

Nonetheless, he couldn't deny that the blood of the creature held the potential to catapult the effectiveness of X-111 to new heights and truly create an incredible cure for radiation poisoning. At least it would give the people of the Commonwealth one less thing to worry about.

"Boston Airport Base is in visual range Sentinel Fox. Make sure you're strapped in for landing on the Base grounds."

Nate looked up and acknowledged the pilot's orders and buckled himself in. His thoughts on the past and on the creature having made the flight back to base seem much shorter than it actually was. Nate looked out at the base and saw a flurry of activity as the Knights and Scribes on the ground began to encircle a flat concrete area on the ground.

Among their number, he could see Scribe Noriah on the ground ordering a rather large group of Power Armored troops around and had them organized into a series of columns on the ground with her standing at the back and at the center of the group. Even from here Nate could see that she was carrying a large metal pole with a needle on the end. It was quite clear even from his vantage point on the vertibird what her intention was.

Nate then heard the pilot begin to talk. "Ground Control, this is Trapper-1. Requesting permission to drop live cargo onto base grounds in cargo area then proceed to landing pad."

"Trapper-1, this is Ground Control. Permission has been granted for both requests. Be careful dropping that cage Trapper, the last thing we want is a deathclaw rampaging on the base."

The pilot chuckled and moved the aircraft and in turn the cage over the designated piece of concrete and began toggling the various switches to perform the necessary actions to drop the cage in the required spot.

Nate watched as the pilot flipped one particular switch and heard a crackle coming from the vertibird's outboard speaker.

"Folks on the ground, this is Trapper-1. Be advised the cage will be dropped on the ground in 10 seconds, be prepared."

Nate unbuckled from his seat, eliciting a curious glance from the pilot, and moved towards the open door of the cabin and looked down at the ground and watched as the men and women of the Brotherhood moved through the organized chaos to get where they needed to be. The Scribes retreated to the confines of the ruins of the terminal and closed the doors behind them, safely locking them inside the safety of the building. He watched as many armored troopers took up various positions around the drop location of the cage, their weapons already trained on the cage as it still hung in the air.

Nate placed his hand on the edge of the aircraft and looked down at the cage as the pilot began a countdown.

"Cage release in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Cage drop."

As the pilot finished, Nate felt the vertibird shake as the cage was released from its mounting and was dropped to the ground. He watched as the cage impacted onto the cloud in a flurry of dust as it landed with a resounding thud, causing the knights standing closest to the cage to stumble back a bit from the force of the impact. The chains fell down onto the top of the cage, the links clattering as they fell down on top of the cage and down the front side of the cage, covering the front of the door a bit.

Nate groaned in annoyance at where the chain fell, knowing fully well that the door wouldn't be able to fully close when Noriah and her men go to close it after what she wants to do. Nate knew what he had to do.

Nate hopped down and grabbed the edge of the vertibird and used his momentum to swing himself towards the cage and then dropped himself onto it, causing the caged creature within to growl in annoyance. Nate quickly grabbed the chains off of the top of the cage and threw them off to one side onto the ground before hopping off the front of it and landing on the ground to watch as a few knights saluted the arrival of their Sentinel.

Nate watched as Scribe Noriah approached him and saluted him, the knights trailing her doing the same. "Welcome back Sentinel. I see that your hunt was successful."

Nate looked back at the cage and watched as twelve fully armored knights took up positions on either side of the cage, each one standing in a ready to run position. Nate turned to face the scribe fully, "Yes it was Noriah, and it wasn't all that hard to be honest. Are you going to need any help with this next part?"

Noriah waved him off, "Don't worry about it, you did your part, now let me do mine."

The Sentinel watched as she approached the front of the cage, holding the long steel rod at the ready, and stood behind her enlisted knights as they all flexed in anticipation for what was to come next.

Noriah raised one of her hands in the air, "Everybody ready?"

A cacophony of 'affirmatives' was what she got in response.

She lowered her hand, "Open the cage."

Instantly, the cage lock released and the deathclaw burst out of the front of the cage and immediately began to charge forward, trying its best to get to the one that trapped it in the metal confines. Before it had taken more than three steps however, the knights who had been standing at the ready ran forward and quickly began to grapple with the beast. Each knight knew exactly where they had to go and very quickly grabbed ahold of their designated limb. The deathclaw roared in anger as it quickly found three very strong Power Armored soldiers holding down each of its limbs, disabling its ability to move and to kill. The creature flexed and twisted as it desperately tried to break free of the iron grip of the brave men and women that held the killing machine down, though not by a large margin.

The fact that it took three whole soldiers to hold down just one limb of the deathclaw was a true testament to the legendary strength of these creatures. Even away from the source of the commotion, Nate could hear the knights struggling and staining to keep the deathclaw under their control as it desperately tried to break free. The creature roared in frustration and began to glare at the one who had trapped it, the one who had stolen it from its domain and brought it here as an experiment.

One of the knights looked back at Noriah, "Scribe, whatever you're going to do, do it fast! We can't hold it down for much longer! This thing is fucking strong!"

Noriah nodded her head and readied her steel spear. She took a deep breath before she charged forward with the spear leading her charge. She ran right up to the deathclaw and buried the tip into the soft underbelly of the creature, causing it to roar out in pain at the unwanted object being forced inside of it. Noriah pushed a button on the handle of the device and a small vial about halfway down the shaft of the weapon began to fill with a dark red fluid, the blood of a Mythic Deathclaw.

The Scribe then began to pull on the spear, but found that it had stuck fast to the hardened flesh of the deathclaw, the needle lodged in the creature's underbelly refused to budge free.

Nate was quick to respond and immediately rushed forward and began to tug on the spear, trying to free it from the organic killing machine. They both desperately tried to pull it out and franticly yanked on it, causing both the deathclaw and the knights holding it to be yanked forward as well. They continued to yank on the spear until finally it popped free of the deathclaw and sent Nate and Noriah to the ground, causing them to let out a grunt of discomfort as their land was greeted by the sweet embrace of concrete.

Noriah immediately stood up with Nate following close behind and she immediately began to bark out orders, "Knights, get that thing back in its cage, NOW!"

Both Scribe and Sentinel watched as the knights began to push against the hulking mass of the deathclaw, and to no avail. They were merely enough to keep the creature contained, not enough to drive the creature back into its cage.

One of the knights holding down one of the creature's legs verbalized this, "We need help! We can't get it back in! It's too strong for us!"

Nate watched as the knights who had had their weapons trained on the deathclaw the whole time immediately dropped their weapons and rushed to the aid of their comrades in trouble. Every soldier began to grab whatever piece of the deathclaw they could and began to push the creature back into its cage, the deathclaw roaring in anger as it was pushed back into the cage it so detested.

The knights struggled and strained before finally they had pushed it all the way back into the cage, forcing it to the farthest end away from the entrance. They began to shout and formulate a plan to keep the Mythic Deathclaw inside while allowing all of them the chance to escape to the outside and lock the cage behind them, without allowing it the chance to escape.

The arguing lasted for all but a minute before they had come up with a plan to temporarily incapacitate the deathclaw. One of the knights broke free from the rest of the knights that was holding the creature down and backed up quite a few paces. The knight then ran straight at the group and at the last second jumped up and promptly punched the Mythic Deathclaw right on the side of the head.

The knights all let go immediately as the deathclaw crumpled to the ground momentarily before it began to get back up again. But by that time, the knights had already all retreated to the outside of the cage and had successfully locked the door behind them. The deathclaw bashed its body against the door, causing the whole cage to shake, and let out a frustrated groan of anger as it was forced back into imprisonment.

Nate looked at all of the brave men and women who had put their lives on the line, just so Scribe Noriah could get one small vial of blood. He saw as many of them were sitting on the ground trying to catch their breath after the ordeal of wrestling with one of the Commonwealth's strongest creatures.

It truly must have been one of the strongest, if it took twenty fully armored soldiers to wrestle just one of them into a cage.

Nate saw as Scribe Noriah quickly retreated to the vertibird that had carried the deathclaw here and watched as she boarded it and it flew off to the direction of the Prydwen, more than likely to get as good a reading as possible off of the blood of the creature.

Nate turned and saw as the knights had caught their breath and all stood at the attention as they all looked to their commanding officer, each one saluting the man who had caught the beast that they had just wrestled with.

One of them walked forward and saluted the Sentinel, "What are your orders sir?"

Nate returned the salute and looked at the men and women who had fought for the advancement of the X-111 serum, no doubt in his mind that such a powerful creature's blood could unlock many secrets to surviving the hellish radioactive wasteland of their world.

He figured that they had earned a break.

"Your orders are to report to the mess hall. You've all earned a break, so enjoy it."

Nate heard the soldier in front of him chuckle, "Yes sir, we won't let you down."

The soldiers involved in the small scale operation immediately relaxed their stances and began their trip towards the terminal building and subsequently the mess hall. Those who had been watching the ordeal with their guns drawn on the deathclaw simply went back to their patrols and kept a constant vigil for those who sought to do harm to the Brotherhood.

It made him glad to know that even when they were in the thick of it, the soldiers on the front were always having their backs watched by those who weren't even ordered to be involved, they just did it anyways.

That was what good soldiers did, they watched each others backs, no matter what.

Nate stood tall and began to walk to the terminal building, intending to catch a ride up to the Prydwen to see how things were going with Noriah. However before he could get to the entrance of the building, he was distracted by the tell-tale flashing lights of welders hard at work. Following their source, he found himself at the sight of the teleporter he had built to get into the Institute.

It truly was a marvel of science and engineering. The ability to teleport large quantities of materials and men across vast distances almost instantaneously was a huge advantage that the Institute held over the Brotherhood for the longest time, which was why they had invested so heavily in figuring out that tech. The only problem was that the teleporter that the Institute used was what the Brotherhood now called the 'Hub' teleporter, in which all teleportations had to go through, as it acted as a sort of relay point. If one wanted to teleport, they would have to go to be teleported to the hub teleporter and then to where ever they wanted to go.

In short: no hub teleporter, no teleporting.

What had the scribes working triple shifts on his creation was beyond him, the device didn't function like that. All Nate's creation did was latch onto an existing teleporter signal and send him to the hub teleporter rather than the teleporter's intended target, it didn't act like a hub.

That didn't stop whatever it was the scribes were working on though, for they had gone through extensive retrofitting of the device. The top circular device was gone, the standing pad was enlarged, and it had been given a much stronger power supply than the couple of generators Nate was able to scrounge up at a moment's notice. Nate continued to watch in silent fascination until his presence attracted the attention of the scribe that was in charge of the whole ordeal.

Everyone knew that the scribes on the project were working their asses off to complete it, many of them had pulled all-nighters to get results at record paces. But no one knew what exactly they were trying to do. It must have been something big if the head scribe of this entire chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel was working on it personally and wanted to keep it a surprise.

The scribe in question removed his welding mask and stepped away from the teleporter, wiping away a bit of sweat as he did so. He walked up to Nate and nodded in recognition of the man who stood before him.

"Ah, Sentinel. I see you've returned from your expedition from the glowing sea."

Nate offered his hand for a handshake, "That I have Proctor Quinlan."

Proctor Quinlan was the lead scribe of the Brotherhood. Anything technological or even remotely scientific eventually saw its way through him. While he wasn't exactly a people-person, his skills as scientist were more than enough to make up for a few social quirks that he had, such as his almost emotionless voice and the constant calculative look in his eyes.

Nate motioned towards the organized chaos of the scribes working diligently on the teleporter, "So, when will you guys be done with whatever it is you've been doing for the last week?"

Quinlan merely glanced over his shoulder and watched as one of the scribes, who was standing at a terminal, looked up and gave the proctor a thumbs up, eliciting a nod from the proctor before he turned back to face the Sentinel. "Actually, we just finished up and are ready to test it. If it wouldn't be much of a bother, could you go up to the Prydwen and fetch Elder Maxson, I would like for both him and you to see what we have done."

Nate chuckled, "No problem, I was planning on going up there to see what Noriah is doing with that vial of deathclaw blood, but since you stated you guys are ready to test the device, my task switched to getting my Power Armor ready for whatever might explode."

Quinlan merely shook his head, "Ye of little faith. Very well. We will await your arrival with the Elder. As soon as you arrive, we will unveil our project."

Nate nodded his head, "Sounds like a plan Quinlan. I'll see you in a bit."

Nate spun on his heel and proceeded towards the terminal to catch a vertibird up to the Prydwen to fetch his commanding officer and his Power Armor.

He had to admit, he was quite excited to see what the scribes had been working on for the past week. It was unusual for them to keep something so tightly sealed that neither he nor Elder Maxson knew exactly what they were working on. Of course they knew it was something to do with teleportation, but that was where their information ended and the mysteries began.

It was very disturbing how well Quinlan and his lackeys were able to keep the entire thing under wraps from the higher ups.

Putting it to the back of his head, Nate stepped onto the vertibird designated solely for Prydwen-Terminal transportations and began his trip to the Prydwen.

Even though everything had been going smoothly, Nate couldn't help but shake the feeling that something big was about to happen, probably nothing but he had learned to never doubt his gut feeling on things like this.

He would be sure to load up his Pip-Boy with some extra gear just in case.

 _Meanwhile…_

A black and white police cruiser pulled into the motor pool of the ZPD headquarters. The cruiser quickly pulled into one of the available parking spots before screeching to a stop and turning off not too soon afterwards.

The doors swung open and Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde hopped out of the car and immediately slumped as soon as their feet hit the cold concrete below.

Nick stretched his hands above his head and cracked his back as he let out a yawn of exhaustion. "Man, what a day, huh Carrots?"

He looked towards his partner and couldn't help but notice the forlorn look on her face as she slumped away from the cruiser. It was quite clear at a glance how she actually felt about the day they had.

Hours upon hours of detective work and scouring the streets of Zootopia had turned up nothing on their missing predator case. As they had started out that morning, they had no leads, no witnesses, no motives, no suspects, absolutely nothing.

She merely sighed and let her ears droop down low as she continued walking side by side with her partner out of the motor pool and into the main building of the ZPD.

Nick's resting smug face fell as he looked at the sulking visage of his partner in justice. "Judy, are you okay?"

Judy sighed as she shrugged her shoulders, "Nick, how are we going to solve this case? I mean, we looked everywhere for anything. We must have asked a hundred mammals if they had seen everything. We checked every known location of the known kidnappings. All we got were signs of break-ins but that's it. No DNA, no pictures, no witnesses who saw the actual kidnapping. Nick, we're flying blind on this case and I have no idea where to go from here. At least with the night howler case I had a single picture to go on, but this one, we literally have nothing to go on."

Nick grew a determined look on his face and stopped her with a paw on her shoulder, turning her to face him. "Come on carrots, I know you better than that all you need is one single piece of evidence and you'll crack this case wide open. We just have to find that first clue is all, and sometimes that takes time."

Judy smiled as she looked up at him in appreciation for what he was saying.

But then the smug face appeared.

The red fox chuckled a bit, "Besides, if you're having trouble finding that info, maybe you can start holding people hostage via blackmail."

That got Judy to let out a chuckle as she lightly punched the vulpine on the arm, eliciting a small laugh from Nick, "Dumb fox."

"Emotional rabbit."

The dynamic duo shared a laugh before Judy walked ahead of her partner and towards the front desk to return their cruiser's keys, "Come on slow poke, we have to return our keys and then report in to the chief, who will probably not be too happy to hear about our lack of success."

The pair made their way through the station before arriving at the room of their chief, who was now rubbing at his nose in irritation. "Let me get this straight. You spent all day looking for something, anything at all and have found nothing?"

Judy sighed, "Yes sir, we couldn't find anything at all."

The chief shook his head and stood up and walked over to face a map that had numerous red markings on it, indicating locations of all known kidnappings. He studied the board, trying to find any sort of pattern to the jumble of markings to no avail.

The chief rubbed his chin before speaking, "Well, whoever we are dealing with on this case, it is clear that they are professionals at remaining undetected. For them to take this many mammals without so much as a paw print speaks leagues of their skills in the art of stealth."

Bogo turned to face Nick and Judy again, "And the fact that they are exclusively going after predators is what's bothering me the most."

Judy hopped down from her seat and looked up at the chief of police, "Do you think it might be some kind of pro-prey group that's behind it?"

Bogo hummed in thought, "I wouldn't jump to conclusions before we know more about the case, but for now we can't rule anything out. So yes, that is a very likely possibility. It would certainly explain the numbers of kidnappings so far."

Nick then jumped down from his seat, "Hey, relax guys. We're on it, I'm sure that eventually these guys will screw up and get themselves noticed. And as soon as we get them once, we'll stop the whole operation."

Judy glanced at her partner and gave him an appreciative smile before turning back to the chief, who merely grunted.

"I wish I could share your optimism Officer Wilde. Because as of right now, we still have nothing and the mammals of Zootopia are starting to ask questions. Questions I don't have answers to. So I hope for everyone's sake that someone finds something soon, before the whole city starts to panic."

Bogo then moved to sit back at his desk and rested his arms upon it, "That being said, the both of you worked hard today trying to find something, but it's quite clear that we won't find anything today unfortunately. Your shifts are over, go home and get some rest you two, I'll see you tomorrow and hopefully we'll find something."

Fox and rabbit both saluted before turning to walk out of the room.

The two walked side by side through the halls silently for a few minutes before Judy looked over at her partner, "Nick?"

Nick in turn glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

Judy stopped walking and began to talk, "Do you really think that we'll find something so easily?"

Nick chuckled, "With you on the case, I don't doubt it for a minute."

Judy just sighed, "But how can you be so sure Nick? What makes you so confident that we'll find something? I mean we still have nothing to go on here, absolutely nothing."

Nick merely let lose his infamous smug and patted her on the shoulder, "Because it's you in charge of the case. I know from first-hand experience that once you set your tiny bunny mind to something, there will be nothing that will be able to stop you."

Judy just rubbed one of her shoulders, a bit unsure about this case Nick. Something about it rubs me the wrong way."

Nick halted her with a paw, "Judy. Don't worry yourself too much about it. I'm sure that we'll do fine you funny bunny, I know you well enough to know that whoever is behind these cases will thoroughly regret crossing Zootopia."

Judy smiled at her partner and nodded her head, "Thank you Nick. I won't let you down."

Nick nodded in return, "I know you won't."

He then walked past her and proceeded back down the hallway, "Come on Officer Hopps, let's go home so we can recharge for the next day."

Judy immediately began to sprint to catch up with her colleague, "Right behind you on that one."

The duo then began to make their way through the lobby, but were halted as they saw what was on the television, the snow leopard and moose reporting the news to the masses.

"In other news, the predator kidnapping cases continue to be a mystery to the people of Zootopia. When questioned about the crimes, mayor Lionheart had this to say."

The screen suddenly shifted to a video that was shot in front of city hall, where there was a large lion wearing a confident grin on his face as he stood in front of the media. "People of Zootopia. I have heard your worried cries about these crimes, and I am here to assure you that we have our best and brightest working on the case. Chief Bogo himself has claimed that he has his best officers now working on the case."

Nick leaned over and rubbed the top of Judy's head, "Aww, did you hear that? We're the best officers Bogo has at his disposal."

Judy grabbed his paw and hushed him as she turned her attention to the television, causing Nick to chuckle and turn his attention to the television as well, where the digital lion began to talk again.

"Please do not panic, we will get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, if anyone has anything in regards to this case, please contact your local police department and be prepared to give detailed information. That is all."

The female snow leopard talked as soon as the camera turned onto her, "It is believed that all resources that are not being used for current cases are being diverted towards solving this case. I do not believe I have to say that this case has the mammals in blue a bit hot under the collar after the debacle they had to go through six months ago when Bellwether attempted her scheme."

The screen then cut back to a view that showed both news anchors before the moose began to talk, "That is all for today's news broadcast. Thank you for watching, and remember to stay safe, it's a jungle out there mammals." The moose chuckled at his own joke as his co-anchor put her paw in her hand and exhaled deeply before the screen cut away to a pointless commercial.

Nick slowly shook his head, "That was such a lame joke."

Judy chuckled, "Yeah it was, but it is nice to hear that this case is an 'all hands on deck' kind of case, we can expect a lot of support on this one."

Nick scoffed, "Yeah, and more competition for us to go up against if we are going to be the ones to solve it."

Judy just jumped a little in place, "And we will be the ones to solve it, right partner?"

Nick merely gave her a thumbs up, "You bet."

And just like that, they turned to leave the building to go home and get some rest. After all, a case like this couldn't be solved on little sleep, and they wanted to be as prepared as possible for the days ahead.

They would certainly need it.

 **AN: There is Chapter 3. Don't worry, next chapter for sure things will get 'interesting'.**

 **As before, thank you for reading this story and thank you for your kind words of encouragement, and I do apologize for the fact that this chapter is shorter or of less quality than the last.**

 **I will see you all next time**

 **-Alpha 001**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hello everyone, it's that time of the day/week/month/year where I release another chapter for this story.**

 **I do have to apologize for taking so long with this chapter, a lot of stuff happened to me over the past month that I had to take care of, which meant I had to put this story on the back-burner for quite some time. And even when I did get around to it, I feel like my story quality may have dropped off a bit (or it may be that this is my first real fight scene that I have ever written. Or both) because my mind was pre-occupied with other events going on in my life.**

 **Needless to say, 2016 sucks so far.**

 **Anyways, comments:**

 **Lightninghawk101: I do plan on delving into Nate's backstory a bit more, but I plan on doing that later on in the story. Maybe when the people of Zootopia begin to question why he acts the way he does or does some of the things he does. And don't worry, I won't have him turn into an animal, part of the story is them seeing a human from a war-torn planet, not an animal from a different place.**

 **Superdale 33: I will admit, I do hope that this is my weakest chapter (I feel like it is) but still, I just had to think of a way for Nate to get into Zootopia while it at least making some semblance of sense. And I will try and give more page time to Nick and Judy as the story progresses.**

 **TheNippleLord: Ravioli, Ravioli, I have updated the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Fallout series nor the Zootopia movie. All characters belong to their respective owners.**

 **Onto the story.**

The gentle sea breeze wafted over the small crowd that had assembled on the parapet of the Boston Airport Ruins. Everywhere one looked, there were Brotherhood soldiers standing guard or simply watching the scene created around the teleporter that was finally cleared of scribes, with only a handful now checking and rechecking the device.

Nate and Maxson stood side by side with their arms behind their backs, Nate clad in his newly repaired power armor and Maxson standing in his usual overcoat. Both watched intently as the scribes proudly worked on their creation, both wondering when the time would come for the big reveal.

They wouldn't have long to wait.

"Elder Maxson. Sentinel Fox. I'm so glad you could join us."

The two turned to watch as Proctor Quinlan walked up to them before snapping to a salute before returning to his business. "As you can see, our project has finally come to completion and we are ready for testing."

Maxson gestured towards the device, "You still haven't told us what the hell 'it' is. You and I both know that thing hasn't worked for a minute since the damn Institute was destroyed. Not that I'm complaining or anything."

Nate nodded in agreement, "Yeah, the Institute's teleporter was a focal point for all teleportations. Even if you got that thing up and running, it's useless without a relay point. Without a central teleporter, teleporting is impossible."

All Quinlan did was smile and nod his head.

Nate and Maxson turned to face each other for a brief moment before turning back to face the Proctor, and Nate spoke again. "Unless you built another central teleporter."

Quinlan laughed and walked past the two, their heads following his motions as he moved to stand on the central pad and gesture to his creation, "Right you are Nate. This is the new Hub Teleporter. With it, we'll be able to send troops and supplies all over the Commonwealth without having to risk losing vertibirds or troops during the transportation process. All we have to do now is plug in the coordinates and bam, they're there, ready for action."

Maxson chuckled and went to join Quinlan on the pad, "Impressive work Quinlan. Despite what others may have to say about your rather, different personality, I have to admit you have out done yourself this time."

Quinlan was beaming under the praise as the Elder continued to speak, "Imagine being able to send troops straight to the front where they're needed instantly. No more having to wait for needed reinforcements, no more waiting for supplies. We can really turn things around with this device. This is a dream come true for the logistics team."

Nate walked up to it and began to inspect its construction. Needless to say, Quinlan had gone all out on creating the device, as the construction was nearly flawless, impressive given it was the first time anyone outside of the Institute had built a teleporter to act as the central hub. However, the more he thought about it, the more a single repetitive question rung in his head, one he decided to verbalize to his colleagues.

"Quinlan?"

The proctor turned his head to face the sentinel.

"How do we teleport stuff back?"

The Proctor merely sighed, "As of right now, we don't. We have only been able to recreate the teleporter itself and send stuff through it one way."

Maxson rubbed his chin in thought, "So once we get to where ever it is we teleport to, we would become dependent on local transportation. A very real problem indeed. But if the Institute was able to get around that limitation, we should be able to do the same."

Quinlan nodded his head, "Exactly sir. As we speak, I have some of my best scribes studying documents in regards to the Institute's teleporter as we speak. They have been combing over the relay chips that the corsairs had and have been trying to figure out how to implement them in our equipment so that we could use the teleporter both ways."

Quinlan then gently patted the console, "But as it stands now, it is merely a one way teleporter. It's able to send you anywhere you need to go, but once you're there, you are entirely dependent upon local transportation."

Nate crossed his arms, "Even with that limitation it's a hell of an improvement. It would sure as hell give our men the element of surprise in all future engagements. Good work Quinlan."

Quinlan smiled, "Thank you sirs. I assure you that all existing problems will be flushed out within the coming months. As it stands now, we are ready to begin official testing of the device. At the very least we will be able to send things to the battlefields of the Commonwealth, which is in of itself a huge victory on the logistics front."

Maxson nodded his head, "Very well Quinlan. Let's see what this thing can do."

Quinlan smiled, "Will do sir."

Quinlan looked over to a collection of scribes who were standing at the ready beside a large metal crate of food, water, ammunition, and other miscellaneous supplies. The scribe waved them over, and instantly they picked up the crate and began to haul it over to the group.

Elder Maxson and Sentinel Fox stepped off of the teleporter's main pad and joined Proctor Quinlan behind the console and watched as the Scribe began to type commands into the console. They watched silently as Quinlan continued to set up the device, and the scribes put the crate on the center of the pad and quickly stepped off to get out of the way of the test.

Quinlan cracked his fingers against each other and placed one of his hands over a button that was clearly labeled 'power'. His other hand reached over towards an intercom and pressed down on the button to activate the device, the crackling of the speakers could be heard all over the base as the speaker system activated. "All personnel, be advised. Teleporter device is about to be powered up. All units pull back and keep watch, this is the first time we will be fully powering up the device, anything could happen. Maximum alert people."

As soon as he finished talking, the base immediately began to bustle with activity, with scribes heading to the teleporter to see their creation put into actual use and knights coming to watch the technological marvel activate for the first time.

Quinlan looked around at the people that had gathered around the teleporter before looking back at the two in command, who merely nodded their heads. Quinlan nodded his head in return, "All right gentlemen, here we go."

Quinlan pushed down on the power button, and immediately the teleporter began to hum with power as its systems were flooded with power and the platform began to glow blue lighting as the teleporter came ever closer to reaching optimum power for operation.

The three individuals standing behind the console looked at the power readout as it steadily climbed higher and higher and neared the 100% mark. A few minutes after the teleporter had been activated, it reached maximum efficiency.

As the power capacity reached its maximum, a small pulse was emitted from the device as the teleporter fully stabilized into its proper form, the console warping with static, the HUD of Nate's X-01 flickering momentarily before stabilizing and the lights on the Brotherhood soldier's suits clicked on and off momentarily before everything calmed down, the brief turnoff now over.

Nate turned towards the Proctor, "Quinlan, what the hell was that? All of our electronics just went off the fritz there for a second."

Quinlan merely waved off the Sentinel, "That is nothing to be worried about sir, just a small EMP. It's to be expected when activating things of such nature. All of that power flowing through such a small area was bound to do something of that nature. Don't worry, it was a small one, only enough to temporarily mess with minor systems."

The pulse, while small in terms of damage potential, had been large enough to affect the whole base. All across the base, scribes were briefly concerned when their terminals and creations momentarily flickered out of power, Knights and Paladins looked questioningly at their power armor momentarily before shrugging it off, and the pilots tapped on the gages of their vertibirds before continuing on their way.

And the deathclaw successfully cracked the door on its cage slightly open after the electronic lock on the cage failed. It was smart enough to know that opening its enclosure further would induce the wrath of the Brotherhood, and it could still see the one who had captured and humiliated it. It so desperately wanted to rip the armor off of its captor and sink its claws into its flesh, to rend the life from the one who dared to capture it.

And it wanted its revenge, and it was willing to wait to get it. Willing to wait until all of the soldiers had their attention directed away from it.

Everyone watched the device as Quinlan began to type more specific instructions into the console. He punched in a series of coordinates to teleport the box to and prepped the systems to send the box to its destination.

"Alright, I have set the coordinates to teleport the box to the other side of this area, close enough to monitor its teleportation while being far enough away to adequately test its capabilities."

Quinlan grinned as he looked over his shoulder to look at his Elder, "Are you ready?"

Maxson merely nodded his head.

Quinlan grinned as he placed a finger over the enter key on the console.

"Here we go gentlemen."

Quinlan pressed the button, and immediately the device sprang into life. The platform glowed brightly for a few moments before there was a brilliant flash of light as the box vaporized out of existence. The flash was bright enough that it forced everyone watching without protective eye wear to shield their eyes from the source for the brief moment it existed. When everyone could see again, true to the nature of the device, the metal box was gone. Everyone then turned their attention to the far end of the teleporter construction site, the designated target zone. About five seconds after the teleporter made the box disappeared, the box reappeared with an equally brilliant flash of light, much to the relief of everyone who had worked on the device and to the amazement of those who watched the technological miracle do its job perfectly.

Quinlan motioned to some scribes at the far end of the area to investigate the box. The scribes immediately walked over and opened it to view its contents and check the overall integrity of the box. They checked then rechecked the box and its contents again and again before looking at one another, nodding their heads in agreement before one of them looked at the group behind the console and gave them a thumbs up.

Quinlan smiled and chuckled, "The device was successful. All contents were successfully teleported to the designated zone without incident. I am happy to say that this test is successful."

Elder Maxson looked at Quinlan with a bemused expression on his face as he viewed the excited scribe, "Excellent work Scribe. This device will surely prove to be a driving force in our future engagements."

Quinlan was beaming under the praise, the last week of hard work had proven to be quite a landmark construction for the Brotherhood of Steel, and he was quite proud of himself and the scribes that had assisted him for crafting such a creation. Without a doubt, it would prove to be an invaluable tool in the logistics war.

Nate looked at the device questioningly for a moment. Sure it had successfully transported a crate of supplies across a distance and that in of itself was a hell of an accomplishment.

But what about sending a whole person across that same distance? So far they had only seen a box be teleported, not a living breathing creature. If they wanted to utilize its full use, it would have to be able to teleport actual soldiers into the battle space. It would be useful to teleport supplies there, sure. But teleporting supplies alone only won't do a military any good if there are no soldiers there to properly utilize it. And if teleporting was to become a mainstay of the Brotherhood military, it would have to test the ability to teleport individuals as well as supplies.

Nate decided that it was best to test that particular capability of the device now and learn sooner rather than later if this device was as capable as the Institute's in transporting actual people.

Nate wordlessly walked towards the platform, gaining the attention of everyone around it as they silently stared at the Sentinel as he made his way to stand in the center of the platform and stood at attention as he stood dead center on the platform.

Maxson questioned his Sentinel, "Nate, what are you doing?"

Nate turned and faced Quinlan and Maxson before speaking. "Quinlan, begin preparations for another teleportation. I want you to teleport me next."

Maxson merely looked at him while Quinlan momentarily froze in place. "You want me to do what now!? We only just tested it with a box, and now you want me to step it all the way up to one of my commanders!?"

Nate nodded his head, "Exactly. You've already proven that it works with objects, so what's one living person to this device. Besides, I've already gone through this thing to get into the Institute and it worked perfectly fine then, it should work perfectly fine now."

The sentinel shrugged his shoulders, "Besides, we'll eventually have to test the device on a person, so why not right now and get it out of the way?"

Quinlan paused momentarily before speaking once more, "Sir, with all due respect, that was a crate we transported, not our second in command. There are too many unknowns with this device, too many things to go wrong. And yes, while it worked perfectly last time, it was utilizing Institute tech built BY the institute, not by us. It could clash badly with biological material it could get cut off part way through or-."

Quinlan's worrying was cut off by Maxson, who merely held up a hand to halt the Proctor's worries, "We get it Quinlan. There are a lot of unknowns here. We don't know what could happen when someone goes through."

Maxson turned towards Nate, who only stared back at the Elder. They looked at one another, each reading the other's body language for but a minute before they wordlessly nodded to one another. Maxson turned his head to look at Proctor Quinlan, "Scribe, power up the device again for another teleportation."

Quinlan jumped slightly, "Sir, are you sure about this?"

The elder glanced at the sentinel momentarily before looking back at Quinlan, "Absolutely. It's best to learn now how well it handles soldier transportations rather than later when we might need it. We can't afford to learn about faults in the system when we need them to work at their best."

Maxson let loose a small grin as he looked at Nate, "Besides, this is Nate Fox we're talking about here. If anything goes wrong, I'm sure he'll be able to handle it. He's proven that time and time again."

Quinlan looked back and forth between his Elder and his Sentinel. He was in utter disbelief that they would be so willing to test the device on a living subject so soon after testing it on a mere box. But, he knew that once either of those two set their mind on a task, they would see it through to the end, no matter the cost.

Having both of them set their minds on the same goal would mean that it would be impossible to dissuade them from their goal, which now was to see how well the teleporter could send men across the same distance as the supplies.

The scribe sighed as he let his shoulders sag in defeat, "Very well sir. Beginning power up sequence."

Maxson smirked and watched as he saw the teleporter begin to glow as the power began to flow through it.

Nate closed his eyes and breathed deeply to calm himself down. Even though he knew that the device already proved its abilities, he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous as he felt the power begin to course its way through his body. Already he could feel the very air around him crackle with power as the teleporter crept ever closer to transporting its payload.

He also couldn't help but feel a bit anxious as zero time approached. The last time he had been teleported out of the Brotherhood controlled airport, it had led him into the Institute, and to his son. After such an event, it was completely understandable why he was a bit nervous now.

But, he was willing to go through with the nervousness if it meant a crucial edge in future conflicts.

Maxson and Quinlan watched as the power readouts ever so slowly crept towards their optimal levels, the levels required to transport material from the teleporter to where ever it needed to go.

The scribes and knights all watched as their sentinel stood ready to be the first among them to be teleported by their first creation.

And the deathclaw grew angry as it saw its captor about to vanish out of existence. It had watched as the strange glowing device made the metal box flash out of existence, and it knew that if it didn't act now, its chance at revenge could be gone. It decided that now was the time to strike.

Without so much as a warning, the mythic deathclaw burst forth from its cage, slamming the steel cage doors hard against the walls of its enclosure, and immediately began to charge towards the sentinel. Immediately, the base lit up with alarms blaring and the sounds of power armored troops moving to intercept the creature. The speaker systems quickly blared into life, "The deathclaw got lose! I repeat, the deathclaw broke free! All knights and paladins, move to intercept immediately! Scribes and non-combatants retreat to safe positions and wait for the all clear signal to be given!"

Immediately rounds and lasers made their way towards the raging reptile, but the deathclaw paid the firepower no heed as it instead continued to belt past the armored soldiers that worked to kill it as it made its way towards Nate.

Nate saw as the deathclaw ran at him on all fours with rage filled eyes locked onto his very own, even through his power armor. He quickly materialized one of his most tried and tested weapons for tackling these legendary monsters. The six-barreled weapon appeared in his gauntleted hands and his arms slunk a little underneath the weight of the weapon. Nate quickly hefted the weapon up and aimed the deadly weapon towards the charging creature and spooled the weapon up.

The next few moments seemed like an eternity to those around them.

Nate let loose a torrent of led against the creature in an attempt to bring it down. Most of the rounds fired by the minigun found their mark in the hide of the deathclaw, but a few bounced off of the thick scales of the creature and ricocheted into the surrounding environment.

One such rounds impacted the wall directly next to Proctor Quinlan's head, causing him to dive to the ground in a panic to get out of the way of the line of fire. In his panic, his arm slid across the console face, tampering with all of the dials and switches on the face of the machine, including the teleportation target coordinates. Immediately Quinlan realized his mistake and promptly jumped back up in an attempt to fix the situation. He began to try and halt the operation or at the very least switch the settings back to their original state to try and mitigate the damage that had been done by his panicked dive, but it was too late. As the machine entered the final stages of operation, it locked out all outside tampering so as to ensure a safe teleportation. Quinlan merely shouted at the machine, damming it for the ironic safety measure.

The knights and paladins continued to give chase as the deathclaw finally reached the platform that Nate was standing on. The sentinel moved his weapon to the side as he went to dodge the creature's killer attacks and lightning fast speeds, but to no avail. Before he could so much as blink, the deathclaw used one of its massive clawed hands to grip Nate around his waist and effortlessly lifted the power armor clad soldier into the air and stared dead into the lenses of his helm, battle hardened eyes locking with the eyes of a creature guided by killer instinct alone.

The knights and paladins temporarily ceased fire for fear of accidentally hitting their comrade, and instead moved to surround the pad with their weapons trained on the head of the creature. Just as one of the knights lined up a shot on the creature's head with their gauss rifle, Murphy's Law struck home.

As Nate continued to struggle in the grasp of the deathclaw, the machine let out its final warning of an impending teleportation. The platform glowed brilliantly bright as both deathclaw and sentinel were engulfed in pure energy, the teleporter sparking intensely from the unexpected increase in material to be teleported. The console Quinlan continued to work at became a cacophony of warning lights and alerts as the system became overburdened. Finally, in a last dazzling flash of light, both deathclaw and Brotherhood soldier disappeared.

With the teleportation came a massive surge of energy, which was the straw that broke the control console's back as it began to spark intensely. Both scribe and elder dove to the ground in order to escape the danger of the now self-destructing console as it electrically tore itself apart.

The knights and paladins continued to act as they immediately swung their weapons to the direction where the box had ended up and moved to surround the target zone, their weapons trained on the area as they moved to intercept the deathclaw.

Elder Maxson quickly jumped to his feet as he drew a pistol from his coat and aimed it at the same location as the knights and paladins, aiming it at the height of the head of the deathclaw. Quinlan began to inspect the damage done to the console, trusting his life to the soldiers that stood to defend the brotherhood from such threats.

Everyone stayed deathly quiet as they all stood and trained their weapons on the teleportation target zone, the only sound accompanying them being the sound of the alarm blaring and the tell-tale clatter of soldiers running to assist in any way they could. The whole scene created a calm yet tense atmosphere as everyone wordlessly watched the target zone, waiting for the seemingly endless five second wait to tick away before they could finally move to rescue their sentinel.

One second passed and everyone had checked their weapons.

Two seconds passed and everyone shouldered or otherwise aimed their weapons.

Three seconds passed and everyone took strategic positions around the target zone, heavy weapons up front and precision weapons at the back.

Four seconds passed and all soldiers tightened their hands around the grips of their respective weapons as they instinctively readied to fire.

Five seconds passed and everyone stared and watched.

As nothing happened.

Everyone stood still, staring at the target zone waiting for something, anything to happen. But after a minute of waiting, neither deathclaw nor sentinel showed up.

Maxson holstered his weapon as he swiftly turned towards Quinlan, "Proctor! What the hell happened!? Where's Nate!?"

Quinlan stuttered and desperately tried to work the now dead console, "I don't know sir. The sudden added mass of the deathclaw must have overloaded the system. The teleporter took heavy damage and-."

Quinlan was cut off as Maxson gripped at his shirt collar and dragged him so that they were face to face, "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE FUCKING TELEPORTER RIGHT NOW! WHERE THE FUCK DID OUR SENTINEL GO? WHAT HAPPENED TO NATE?"

Quinlan couldn't help but be frozen in fear. Having the Elder so filled with rage and to have all of that rage directed onto a single person would be enough to make even the most stalwart of individuals freeze in their tracks. Quinlan merely stuttered under his breath as his eyes wandered over to the teleporter itself as it continued to give off sparks of energy. And just beyond that stood a contingent of very confused knights as they began to sweep the area, looking for anything they could have missed.

The scribe's attention was directed back towards the Elder as said Elder began to shake him, trying to draw an answer out of him. "Well Quinlan, where did he go?"

Quinlan looked back at the console, its lights and screens now laid black and dead as the console stood lifeless. He sighed before turning back to face Maxson, "I don't know sir. A bullet hit nearby and I dove for cover, but I hit the coordinate board by mistake and I accidentally changed the target zone."

Maxson closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he dared to speak again. "Well Proctor. Where is he?"

Quinlan sighed and shrugged, "I don't know sir. I only got a glimpse of the coordinates before the teleporter overloaded, I didn't recognize them sir. He could be anywhere."

Maxson growled as he shoved Quinlan away and marched towards the now defunct teleporter, staring at its dead visage as it continued to spark and flash with remnant energy.

Even though Nate Fox was the toughest son of a bitch Maxson had ever known, he couldn't help but worry about him. He had just been teleported alone with a Mythic Deathclaw to who knows where and was now more than likely locked in a death battle with said creature. He was only marginally worried that Nate would die to the creature, he was the best at taking them down. But he was worried about where he was sent to, his skills wouldn't do him much good if he was teleported into solid granite.

Plus the fact that it was a MYTHIC deathclaw wasn't making the situation any better, those things were legendarily tough.

Maxson's thoughts were halted when a paladin walked up to him carrying a lethal looking .50 caliber machine gun in his hands and spoke to him. "Sir, we've searched the immediate vicinity, there's no sign of Sentinel Fox or that deathclaw anywhere. Should we expand the search sir?"

Maxson shook his head, "That won't be necessary. I doubt he's anywhere nearby, we would have heard it by now. Have you and your men return to your posts, be on the lookout for anything at all."

The paladin nodded his head, "Yes sir." The paladin turned and gathered his men to return to their posts, leaving Maxson and Quinlan almost completely alone in the teleporter area, save for a few soldiers who remained on guard and a handful of scribe who had begun to inspect the teleporter.

The Elder watched silently as they began to work, silently praising them for their dedication. Even though a major blow had just been struck to them, having lost both a week's worth of hard work and their Sentinel in a single moment, they were immediately back to work to try and fix it. For them, there was no time to morn or to lament over their loss, for they still had a job to do and they would see it through to the end, they could morn latter. He turned his attention towards the teleporter, silently studying the device. Where ever that creation sent Nate, he could only hope that he arrived at the other end safely. He hated feeling helpless, and yet there was nothing he could do in this situation. He couldn't send a recon team to investigate, he couldn't call him up on the radio, nothing. There was nothing he could do.

And he hated it.

But there was something someone else could do, someone under his command. He turned to face said person.

"Quinlan."

The scribe in question looked up at the elder.

"How long until you can get this teleporter up and running again."

Quinlan looked around at the damage done to the teleporter itself, then back down to the console before huffing and looking at the Elder, "I'd wager about a few weeks, longer if it's worse than I think it is. We lost a lot of hard to find parts in the overload it seems."

Quinlan grabbed a screw driver and immediately set to work on the console, working to remove its cover to get at its internal components, "But I can't even begin to estimate how long it'll take to find out where the hell it sent him."

Maxson sighed in annoyance as he stared back at the teleporter.

Where ever he was, Nate would have to hold out on his own for who knows how long. Maxson knew he would do his best, Nate was a true survivor through and through. He had survived Anchorage, he survived the Great War, and he survived the Institute War. There was no doubt in Maxson's mind that unless the teleporter had sent him into a volcano or something along those lines, he would be able to adapt and survive quickly to his new environment. He was a professional at that, the Commonwealth proved that to all of them.

But he was more worried about the fact that they had no idea where the hell he was. Nate could be anywhere, and they had no idea where that could be. They couldn't even begin to look for him when everywhere was a possibility, that would be too big of a waste of resources to approve of. The only device that could tell them where they had sent him to was now being repaired by Proctor Quinlan, and even then there was no guarantee that it would still remember the coordinates.

He let loose a sigh as he continued to just blankly stare at the metal construct. He turned to the side to acknowledge the knight that had walked up to him, "Elder, what's the plan sir?"

Maxson turned back to stare at the device. "What do you think the plan is? We're getting our Sentinel back." The knight merely nodded, "Copy that sir." Both longingly stared at the teleporter, perhaps waiting for something to come out of it, hoping that this would all magically go away.

But it didn't.

 _Meanwhile…_

Rabbit and fox pushed open the doors and walked out of the police building and onto the streets of Zootopia. Both mammals stopped for a moment as they simply took in the site of the city before them. They both let out a sigh as they finally began to relax from the day's work.

They calmly watched as the mammals of Zootopia calmly went about their daily lives, hoping to make it in the big city. To and fro, the masses went as even now as the sun began its descent, already casting a golden glow over the city, they continued to work to survive in the concrete jungle.

Nick and Judy couldn't help but feel proud of themselves as they looked upon the masses, smiles on their faces intermixed with those who held determined looks. They stood proudly on the steps of ZPD precinct 1, still clad in their uniforms, knowing that they were these mammal's line of defense between the civilization they worked so hard to create and the more primitive mindsets of those who sought to undermine it. They turned to look from the nearby city hall where Mayor Lionheart proudly led the people of Zootopia towards a better future to the museum across the street from said City Hall telling the mammals how they had gotten there. And here they were, a fox and a rabbit, given the task of defending it all from those who sought to do it harm.

They were the fine mammals of the Zootopian Police Department, and they felt proud to say it.

Nick looked at Judy with a smile on his face. Without her, he would still be out on the streets swindling the people that made up its population. He was happy that she had managed to persuade him into giving that all up and making an honest living as a fox in blue. There were complications at first. Training was a nightmare for a mammal as small as he was, it took him quite a while for him to get his paws wet while on the force, and his best friend was also his superior officer, meaning he ALWAYS had to listen to her.

But he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Nick! Judy!"

The duo turned and watched as a pair of wolves walked up to them, also still wearing their uniforms even though their shifts were now over.

Judy smiled and greeted them, "Wolford! Fangmeyer!"

Nick chuckled as Judy went over to greet the wolf duo. For such a small mammal, Judy was quite capable of making a huge impact on the mammals of Zootopia. In just the short amount of time she had been here, she had managed to break the preconception that small mammals like herself and Nick were incapable of becoming good, let alone great, police officers. In doing so she had earned herself quite a few new friends on the force, including the two wolves she now spoke to.

Judy hopped over to the wolf duo and shook their hands, "How did your case go? Did you find out who it was?"

Fangmeyer chuckled and nodded his head, "Yeah, we caught him. Turned out just like Bogo said, it was just some pig looking to make an easy buck off of the local stores. We sniffed him out and booked him and then spent the rest of our shift on patrol."

Nick sauntered over with that characteristic grin on his face, "So, did you guys manage to get him to squeal?"

Wolford rolled his eyes, "Ha ha. Funny Nick. And no, we didn't have to. CCTV's caught him in the act in one of the stores and we just followed the trail from there to his apartment across the street." The gray timber wolf then slowly shook his head, "Not the most well thought out hiding spot, that's for damn sure."

Fangmeyer then snapped his fingers suddenly, "That's right, you and Nick got the missing predator case that has everyone talking. So, did you find anything on our Bellwether wannabe?"

Judy sighed sadly and shook her head, "Sadly, no. We couldn't find anything on the kidnappers."

Fangmeyer simply waved one of his paws, "Oh, don't you worry about it too much Judy. I'm sure that you'll get them eventually, I know you will."

Nick moved to stand by his partner and gently rubbed the top of her head between her floppy ears, "That's exactly what I told her earlier. Isn't that right you funny bunny?"

Judy rolled her eyes and pushed Nick's paw off of her head, "Yeah, yeah. I get it Nick. I've supposedly got this whole case under control."

Nick smiled and gave her a thumbs up, "That's the spirit."

Another roll of the eyes, "Dumb fox."

The group shared a soft laugh at the duo's antics before they calmed down.

The resulting silence was found calming by all parties, but it did not last.

Judy began to walk towards the apartment she shared with Nick and gestured for him to follow, "Come on Nick. Let's go home so we can get some much needed sleep."

Nick chuckled lightly, "I'm with you on that idea Judy. Just make sure you-."

All further conversations were halted as suddenly the entire area in front of the ZPD precinct was engulfed in a brilliant flash of light that had every mammal covering their eyes to protect from the intensity of it. There were dozens of screams from the surrounding civilians as the sudden appearance of such brightness scared many of them into instinctively crying out in fear.

Both Nick and Judy still had their paws over their eyes when they heard terrifying sounds coming from the epicenter of the flash. After making sure that the bright light was gone, they lowered their paws to look at what had happened and promptly froze in both astonishment and fear.

The brave mammals of the ZPD and the civilian population all stood still in shock as they saw the scene before them unfold.

Before laid a sight that simply put scared the hell out of them. Before them was an absolutely massive reptilian monster gripping a far smaller fully armored figure struggling within the grasp of its terrifying claws. The armored figure continued to struggle as the reptilian monster continued to blankly stare at its captor. Everyone was momentarily frozen in fear as they silently watched the scene, fearful of what might happen next.

For Nate, it was an entirely different experience.

He obviously knew that the teleporter worked, and that it had sent him and his unintended travel companion somewhere. A somewhere that he had no idea of if an extremely quick glance at his surroundings was anything to go by.

But he currently had more pressing matters on his mind to worry about than his current location. Namely the massive deathclaw that was now trying to rip his intestines out of him.

He continued to wrestle within the reptilian's grasp, minigun being held uselessly in his left hand and unable to be properly used in this situation. He knew that if he wanted to survive, he had to get out of the situation and fast.

So he looked down and noticed that the deathclaw had gripped him around his waist, meaning that his torso was free.

Which also meant that its claws were directly underneath the nozzles of his jetpack.

He smirked underneath his helmet as he powered up his jetpack and immediately set loose a jet of flames that scorched its way over the deathclaw's hand.

The deathclaw responded in kind as it promptly let go of the Sentinel to inspect its now somewhat burned hand, its scales having resisted most of the fire's damaging properties but still eliciting a burning sensation throughout the appendage.

Nate meanwhile used this opportunity to distance himself from the deathclaw. He continued to fly backwards away from the creature as he was now finally able to grip the firing handle of the minigun with his right hand and promptly aimed the weapon at the deathclaw. After traveling some distance away from the monster, he cut the engines and landed on the ground with a resounding impact.

He stood up and aimed the minigun directly at the deathclaw. The deathclaw in turn stared right back at him, the eyes of the Sentinel and the deathclaw locked as they stared each other down.

They simply stared at each other, eyes glaring at their opponent trying to size the other up to try and find potential weaknesses before the ensuing melee. Only one single thought resonating through both of their minds as they both looked at their downright lethal opponent.

Survival.

This was going to be a fight to the death.

The deathclaw raised one of its powerful legs up into the air before slamming it back down, creating a visible shockwave of dust and let out an earth-shattering roar as it declared its intention to its opponent.

Nate wordlessly spooled up his minigun and squeezed the trigger.

Nick, Judy, the officers present, and the many civilians around were immediately shaken out of their stupor by the sound of the deathclaws roar and the immediate retort of high volumes of gunfire. The civilian mammals all began to run away from the scene as officers began to rush from the inside of the police officer building and out onto the streets and to the scene before them.

Nick and Judy immediately sprinted for cover in the form of a now abandoned sheep car and Judy immediately began to scream into her radio, partly to be heard over the sound of the fight and partly out of unrivaled fear.

"Dispatch! This is Officer Hopps! 245 in progress in front of ZPD precinct one! We need assistance immediately!"

Promptly there was a response, "Copy that Hopps! All units, there is a 245 in progress in front of ZPD precinct one, we need everyone we can to respond immediately."

Almost instantly there was a torrent of officers that flooded out of the ZPD building, tranquilizer hand guns drawn and at the ready.

Chief Bogo burst out of the building and quickly looked at the scene around them. Most of the civilians had thankfully already left, minus the few that had been injured in the initial tirade of fleeing, and they were either desperately trying to claw their way to safety or froze up in fear, choosing to take no action rather than risk taking the wrong one.

The police chief also saw numerous officers already working to get the civilians who couldn't move out of the area and safely escorted them outside of the now quickly forming perimeter around the scene. Those that weren't busy escorting civilians were now taking up firing positions around the fight in front of the police headquarters.

Which of course brought Bogo's attention to the fight itself.

Both creatures fought each other with a passion for the fight that Bogo thought otherwise impossible. Most of the fights he had been a part of or otherwise heard of were mostly orchestrated by criminals who were desperately trying to get away. They almost never had the sensation of being a life and death struggle between the two factions.

But here, that was the only feeling he was getting as he watched the armored figure continuing to fire its incredibly dangerous weapon in the direction of the reptilian monster who only continued to advance through the hailstorm of lead and death as if it wasn't there.

Bogo knew just by looking at this fight that this fight would only truly end when one of them laid dead on the ground.

But he wasn't about to just lie down and let that happen.

Bogo grabbed his radio, "This is Bogo, all units open fire on the combatants. Take them down boys."

Nick and Judy listened to the radio and looked at each other. Nick held his tranquilizer gun at the ready, "I'll take the armored one and you take the big one."

Judy nodded in agreement before they both leaned out of cover and took aim at their respective targets. After lining up their shots they both fired and watched their rounds quietly sail their way towards their targets.

Nick froze up as he saw his dart bounce off of the armored torso of his target and Judy gasped as she watched her dart downright shatter against the tough hide of her target. If either target noticed their efforts, they made no show of it, instead choosing to continue fighting one another as if there was no one else around.

They reloaded their weapons and fired again, only to find similar results occurring. Soon the voice of Grizzoli sounded their very same concern over the radio, "Darts aren't working guys. They just bounce of the skin of these things."

Bogo grabbed his radio and loudly spoke into it, "Tranq guns aren't working. Bring out the taser rifles."

A resounding series of confirmations sounded through the radio as officers began reaching into their squad cars to grab their rifles or otherwise ran inside the building to grab one from inside.

Nate had no time to pay attention to the action around him. He was aware he was being shot at, but seeing as the rounds were doing literally no damage to him he was willing to put it off until after his fight with the deathclaw.

He momentarily stopped firing as he leaned down to dodge an overhead swipe from one of the deathclaw's killer swings. The momentum of the miss spun the creature around so that its back was now facing the soldier, who immediately capitalized on the moment. Nate aimed his weapon down and fired a burst into one of the deathclaw's legs, prompting the creature to let out a roar of pain as it felt hot lead rip through one of the only soft spots on its body.

The deathclaw retaliated by lowering itself onto all fours and kicking back against Nate using its good foot, making the sentinel sail back a couple of feet before he used his jetpack to catch himself and reorient himself so that he could land back on his feet safely. As he landed the deathclaw turned back around and began its assault against him again, noticeably slower this time around as it ran at him with a slight limp in its leg.

Nate used this opportunity to line up his minigun, red hot barrels pointing straight at his opponent and squeezed the trigger.

Only to find that he had emptied the magazine without realizing it.

Staying calm, he removed the massive drum of ammo from the weapon and quickly dematerialized the spent drum into his pip-boy before he rematerialized it with a full 500 round load inside of it.

He slammed the drum home inside of its casing and cocked the weapon, prepping it for firing again and looked up to see the deathclaw bearing down on him. It raised one of its massive claws to swipe against him, making Nate dive to the side to try and dodge it.

However, he was a bit to slow as the deathclaw pushed him to the ground and leaned in close to let loose a hate filled roar as it once again raised one its claws to attack him. Nate quickly began to roll to try and get out of the way, but felt as one of the claws heavily impacted his left arm, letting loose the sound of claw heavily impacting titanium armor and pushed him a good distance away before he finally slid to a halt, left arming stinging in pain. But both he and his suit were still fully operational and he stood back up to re-engage the rampaging deathclaw.

The officers all flinched at the sound that the attack against the armored figure had made. The sound of the claws ripping through the concrete below before slamming into the armor had made many of them cover their ears at the intensity of the sound. They were then astounded to see the armored figure quickly stand up and begin fighting again as if nothing had happened to it.

Their inaction was quickly ended as many officers finally loaded up their taser rifles and once again took aim at the creatures in front of them.

Nick and Judy meanwhile could only continue to watch the fighting ensue as officers now grabbed their assigned rifles out of their cruisers or dashed inside the ZPD office to grab them from within. From their position away from any cruisers and with too much open ground between them and the ZPD precinct, there was little for them to do other than watch and hope for the best.

Judy leaned out a little too far from cover for Nick's tastes, prompting him to yank her back behind cover.

Judy snapped her attention to the fox, "Come on Nick. We have to do something."

Nick snarled a little, "I know, but what can we do? Our darts don't work and we are far too exposed here to make a break for any other weapons. I don't like it, but we just have to hunker down here and wait for our chance."

Judy only grumbled in agreement, "Fine. We'll wait till the coast is somewhat clear, then make a break for it."

Nick nodded in agreement before turning his attention back to the fight at hand.

Seeing as how the fight showed no signs of stopping any time soon, they decided to do a bit of police work and study the assailants.

Neither Judy nor Nick were able to even begin to guess as to what species either of the two were. Obviously, most of their attention was directed towards the 16 foot tall reptilian monster that was almost constantly roaring as it moved persistently towards its opponent. Such a creature easily towered over most of the populace of Zootopia, and those that did stand taller than it were easily dwarfed in terms of sheer muscle mass.

Even from behind cover, both could tell that this thing was a biological killing machine. Its scales hard enough to deflect darts designed to pierce elephant hide, its claws and muscles strong enough to rip through concrete, and it was so deceptively fast for such a large creature.

Every single movement it made it seemed to make with the intent to maim and to kill.

The only thing that was giving it a run for its money was the other creature, the thing it was fighting.

Standing at not even half the height of the reptilian monster, the armored figure made up for its smaller stature in its use in weaponry and armor.

The weapon it utilized was able to put forth a downright terrible torrent of lead down range, the likes of which no one in Zootopia had even heard of before, easily rivaling the SMG's of the ZPD SWAT team. Its armor was able to survive a direct hit from one of the monster's killer claws which were able to effortlessly slice through concrete. And it wielded its weapon as if it was a part of its being. It fired exactly where it wanted it to be fired.

It was clearly a professional in its craft.

Which led Judy to notice exactly where it was firing its weapon. Sure it had no qualms about shooting the reptile in the back whenever it maneuvered around it and had the opportunity to do so. But whenever he was facing it dead on, it always seemed to aim at the monster's underbelly. Everywhere else on the body the bullets were leaving minor scruffs and scrapes.

But the underbelly was riddled with holes and had quite the amount of blood seeping out of it.

That underbelly was one of the reptile's only true weak spot.

She hurriedly grabbed her radio, "This is Officer Hopps. Aim your shots at the reptilian creature's underbelly. Repeat, aim for its underbelly. That is where it is most vulnerable."

All around she could see officers, now armed with much more intimidating taser rifles taking aim at the creature, their laser dots indicating that they were aiming as per her instructions.

But they didn't fire and instead one of the asked over the radio, "If we take down that big one, that smaller one won't have anything to distract it. What if it turns that weapon on us?"

Judy froze as she realized that the officer had a point. While she had figured out the weak point on the bigger creature, she still had no idea whatsoever as to how to bring down the smaller one. She looked over at her partner and noticed that he was just staring at her blankly. There was no smug grin, only a look that said it all.

Nick was terrified right now. And he was well within his right to be so.

She had to try and create some sort of control here if she was going to snap him out of his scared stupor.

She grabbed the radio again, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now fire your weapons at the weak spot. It would be better to fight only one of these things rather than two at the same time."

Almost immediately, she heard the sounds of tasers discharging their electric payload.

As with before, those who had been aiming at the armored figure watched as their munitions bounced helplessly off of the incredibly durable armor.

But it was a different story with the reptilian creature.

Most rounds simply bounced off of the thick scaly hide of the monster as before. But at least two shots had found their mark in the belly of the creature and stuck fast. Judy let loose a sigh of relief as she saw Chief Bogo among those who had successfully found their mark within the weak spot and were now delivering a knockout shock to the creature.

Even from their distance away from the fight, she and Nick could hear the sounds of electricity arcing through the creature as it roared in pain and began to convulse under the influence of the current arcing through its body.

But even with two taser rifles shocking it, it stayed standing.

That is until the armored figure decided it shouldn't.

She watched as the armored figure jumped up with the assistance of its jetpack and delivered an incredibly heavy blow straight to the face of the creature and watched as the reptile helplessly crumbled to the ground.

But Nate wasn't done with just that.

He immediately dematerialized his minigun into his pip-boy for safe keeping as he kneeled down next to the neck of the deathclaw. He knew that he had to finish this fight quick, if not for his sake than for the officers around him.

By now, he had figured out that he was surrounded by apparently police officers if the sirens and chatter he overheard was anything to go by. While he certainly was curious to know where he had ended up that had an actual police force, complete with working automobiles and decent training, he had to keep his top priority in mind.

For now, that top priority was bringing down that deathclaw. And if they were helping him, even without intending to do so, he could care less who they were.

So when they fired high-powered tasers into the deathclaws belly and temporarily froze it, he silently thanked them for being at least decent shots with those things.

But now he had pushed the head of the deathclaw up to allow better access to the relatively thin throat of the creature and immediately began to punch it with all of his might. He let loose heavy blow after heavy blow trying desperately to force the windpipe of the deathclaw to close up to make it suffocate and kill it before it did what he feared most of all right now, killing those around him that showed that they couldn't handle the creature without his assistance.

He was only able to let loose about four or so hits on the creature's neck before he happened to glance up and saw the officers around him watching him, and he froze up.

Animals.

They were all animals.

All around him, there were elephants, wolves, bears, lions, and even a fox by the looks of it all clad in police clothing and weapons drawn onto him and the creature. He felt his mind grind to a halt as he tried to take in the scene around him, trying to process the new information it had come across. It was as if he was surrounded by zoo animals, if they all had weapons and police uniforms.

Nate's eyes widened under his helmet as he just realized his mistake.

"Oh crap."

He took his eyes off of the deathclaw.

By the time he turned his attention back to it, all he could see was the massive claw making its way down to impact with the helm of his power armor. Before he could so much as blink, the deathclaw brought its massive hand down and slammed him hard into the ground.

Though it wouldn't out right kill him while in his Power Armor, it was more than enough to temporarily daze him. He couldn't move as his body crumpled under the intense power of the blow to his body.

Nate was still very much aware of his surroundings though as he laid dazed on the ground, and could hear as the deathclaw stood up turned its attention to the officers surrounding them. For now until at least he was able to get up and do something about it, those completely unprepared officers were on their own in taking down a deathclaw.

For the ZPD it was a nightmare come true. They watched as the giant reptile effortlessly slammed the armored figure into the ground where it now laid motionless. Mere moments later, the creature stood to its full terrifying height and slowly turned its gaze towards Anderson, a polar bear that was bracing his taser rifle against a street light that had successfully hit the monster in its weak point. The bear in question froze underneath the gaze of the creature as it slowly turned its whole body to face the much smaller predator, using one of its massive hands to effortlessly rip out the metallic barbs still imbedded within its soft flesh, claws grazing over the fresh bullet holes still dripping wet with blood. Bear and deathclaw locked eyes in a brief stare down, one that the deathclaw won effortlessly.

Without so much as a warning, the creature lowered onto all fours and began galloping towards the stunned carnivore. Anderson couldn't even blink, as he was literally petrified with fear as the monster closed the distance with terrifying speed. As the creature closed within 15 feet of the polar bear, a nearby lion shouted at the fear gripped officer. "ANDERSON! GET OUT OF THERE NOW!"

That was enough to get the bear to shake his head and look up to see the creature raise one of its massive claws high into the air in preparation to swing it back down onto its target. Anderson screamed out as he quickly dived out of the way of the lethal swing, with mere moments to spare. The creature swung its massive claw into the air where once there was a bear and the claws continued on their course, colliding with the adjacent street lamp.

Multiple sets of ears pinned back at the sound of metal snapping as the creature effortlessly ripped the street light out of its foundation and forced it to scrape across the pavement, the lamp bent at an awkward and terrible angle from the force of the hit. Anderson quickly glanced at the damage done to the inanimate structure then looked back at the very angry organism that once more turned its angry gaze towards its target.

Anderson gripped his rifle and quickly fired a round directly into the creature's underbelly, temporarily stunning it though not nearly as much as with the first time the rifles had been used, but it was enough for Anderson. The polar bear used this opportunity to get up and bolt down the sidewalk and towards friendly officers who kept their weapons trained on the massive killing machine of an animal that was once again removing the taser barbs imbedded in its flesh.

The deathclaw turned its head and watched as its prey escaped it once again, retreating behind the masses of its friends who now all had their weapons trained on it. Knowing that it would be more of a hassle to go through all of its allies just to get one of the two who had stopped it, the deathclaw turned its attention towards the other officer that had hit it with a taser rifle.

Chief Bogo was not one to take an attempted murder of one of his officers lightly, and he was not about to back down from this creature, no matter what it was.

Deathclaw and water buffalo slowly approached each other, buffalo checking his weapon and deathclaw scraping its claws against the pavement sending up flakes of dust and debris as the distance between the two closed. Bogo shouldered his rifle and prepared to fire it at the creature as it raised to its full height, towering over the large police chief.

The chief smirked as the creature exposed its soft underbelly to him, making it a perfect target for his weapon to hit. He squeezed the trigger and felt the subtle recoil as the barbs fired, electrical wires trailing behind as the barbs imbedded perfectly into the belly of the creature.

Immediately, the reptile began to convulse under the effect of electricity overriding its brain's electrical signals, but remained standing upright. Bogo dropped his rifle and ran forward, kicking out at the creature's bad leg, forcing it down onto the ground. Bogo grabbed the creature's horns and began to force it ever harder down onto the ground, using both his own weight and is brute strength to keep the creature pinned down. Bogo turned towards the surrounding officers, "Officers! Give me a hand here! We need to keep it pinned down!"

Officers began running around their cars and leaving their cover as they began to advance on the creature. They only stopped when suddenly one of the massive clawed hands gripped one of Bogo's arms roughly, causing the buffalo to cry out in surprise and pain. The creature looked up at its new captive as it began to rise to its full height once again, taking Bogo up with it and effortlessly held the massive water buffalo in the air.

Bogo let out a scream of pain as his arm let out a sickening crack at the shoulder as his body weight worked against him and dislocated his shoulder. He grunted in pain as he looked from his arm back to the face of the creature as the fanged visage crept ever closer to his face. His eyes locked with the cold and lifeless eyes of the monster before him. The creature flicked out a snake-like tongue that gently graced over his fur, making him flinch back in annoyance.

It was tasting him, in front his men and the whole of Zootopia.

And he would be damned to let them all see him get eaten like some kind of animal.

Bogo used his free hand to grab the tranquilizer pistol attached to his hip and snapped it up to aim right at one of the eyes of the creature in front of him and fired point blank into the visual organ of the creature.

The creature promptly let out a roar of pain and dropped the police chief roughly onto the ground, its now freed hand going to grip around its now ruined eye.

Nick and Judy stood still as they watched the scene unfold before them. They watched silently as the creature recovered from the attack and turned to stare at Bogo with its still good eye. The chief responded by beginning to crawl backwards across the ground away from the creature.

Judy looked quickly at Nick who looked back at her with a slack-jawed expression of utter bewilderment. Nick softly spoke to his partner, almost completely inaudible over the chaos around them, "How is that thing still standing after everything we've thrown at it? What does it take to bring this thing down Judy? Can we even do that?"

Judy merely turned back to look at the creature as it ever so slowly closed the distance between it and the downed chief of police. She quickly made up her mind, "That doesn't matter Nick. What does matter is saving our chief, and we surely can't do that from here."

Judy had only just began to walk before one of her ears was roughly grabbed by her fox partner, who then proceeded to yank her back and causing her to yelp in pain. She swiftly turned to face her partner who wasn't even looking at her at this point. She rubbed her ear to try and soothe it, "What the heck is your problem Nick?"

Nick wordlessly pointed back at the creature, "That is."

Judy turned and looked and immediately saw what he was pointing at. Just behind the creature, the armored figure had fully stood up and was now advancing on both the chief and the creature, deadly weapon drawn and spinning in all of its hellish glory, red barrels still glowing red hot creating a cylinder of super-heated metal that slowly approached the creature from behind.

Nate had seen what that one officer had done. It certainly takes a certain degree of madness and bravery to single-handedly stand up to deathclaw. To stare a deathclaw dead in the eyes and not only not back down but to actually advance on the creature takes an immense measure of bravery. But bravery does not necessarily correlate with skill, as was quickly evident by the fact that the brave soul was quickly incapacitated by the deathclaw, but not before doing Nate a favor.

The brave soul had given the deathclaw a blind spot.

A blind spot he was now advancing through to get within point blank range of the deathclaw unseen. He was well aware of all of the surrounding animals staring at him as he slowly advanced on the deathclaw, minigun at the ready.

But as long as they didn't alert the deathclaw to his presence, he couldn't care less.

Nate kept walking until he was a mere 6 feet away from the deathclaw that still, unaware of his presence, slowly advanced on the downed officer. Nate looked at the deathclaw's underbelly, which was obstructed by the arm of the creature. He grunted in annoyance as the arm was stopping him from getting a perfect shot on the soft underbelly.

But he supposed that this would be the best chance both he and the downed officer would have. Without so much as a moment's worth of hesitation he squeezed the trigger of the massive weapon.

The deathclaw immediately stumbled backwards under the intense volley of fire of lead as the minigun kept forcing the deathclaw back and further away from the downed chief. The deathclaw gripped at its stomach as hot lead ripped through its belly.

Nate turned to try and warn the buffalo to get out of there while he still could. "Get out of here, now! I'll hold it off!" He didn't even stop to see if the officer got the message, turning his attention back to the task at hand.

The deathclaw kept retreating away from the Sentinel as he kept firing the weapon directly into its belly, driving it ever further away from the downed water buffalo.

Bogo silently watched as the armored figure drove the creature away from him, momentarily stunned by the fact that it not only spoke to him but was actually helping him. But more importantly, he recognized that he did in fact now have the option to escape the fight he clearly was not prepared for.

Bogo immediately got up and retreated back into the building, being guided inside by some of his men. Bogo looked through the glass doors and at the fight that still raged on outside, the armored figure driving the much larger reptilian creature away. He let out a loud growl as he turned to look at Clawhauser who was still manning the radio set, calmly talking with the officers over the radio. At the approach of his chief, Clawhauser looked up and acknowledged him by finishing up one last call before giving the chief his full attention.

Bogo slammed his good arm down onto the counter top, "Call the SWAT team. Tell them to load up with lethal munitions and to be prepared for an intense firefight."

Clawhauser looked straight at Bogo, "I already took the liberty of doing so sir. They should be here any minute now."

As if summoned by those words, Clawhauser and Bogo turned to look outside as they heard the tell-tale screeching of a large car being stopped just outside of the doors of the ZPD.

Outside, a large armored van came to a dead stop and about a dozen heavily armed and professional looking SWAT officers, clad head to paw in jet black tactical gear. The various mammals all came rushing out of the van, sub machine guns in hand and gear plus munitions strapped to their chests and promptly took positions around the fight that still raged in the street.

Most took up positions behind the abandoned cars that littered the scene and a few took up prone positions on the sidewalk, lethal weapons drawn and aimed straight at the fight.

Most held the faces of long time veterans of the force, completely focused on the objective at hand as they readied their rifles, though a few did share the worried looks of their patrol partners.

They all stood at the ready but held their fire. A panther whose fur was as black as the gear he wore grabbed his radio and began to speak, "Chief Bogo, this is Sergeant Austin. What are our orders?"

There was a momentary pause. Chief Bogo thought about the creatures that were currently fighting on the street. By all accounts, both were incredibly dangerous and posed a potentially huge threat to all of them, but only one of them had given any indication of being somewhat friendly. "Sergeant Austin, this is Chief Bogo. Focus your fire on the reptilian creature, repeat fire at the reptile, that's our biggest threat out there."

Nick and Judy glanced at each other before ducking behind their car, mere moments before the SWAT officers opened fire with their SMG's.

Nate was still firing his minigun when he heard the tell-tale sounds of SMG's firing behind him. Given the fact that he himself was not being hit told him that he was no longer being fired at, which made him grin underneath his helmet. He gripped his weapon a bit tighter as he continued pressing forward, firing all the while trying to push the creature as far away from the officers as he could so that he could have some room to reload the thirsty heavy weapon. Which was when he glanced at his ammo counter.

Which had just dropped below 50 rounds left.

Nothing to a minigun.

He would have to reload the mighty weapon within point-blank range of a very pissed off deathclaw.

Before he could even contemplate the turn of events, the gun began to silently spin its red hot barrels with no lead being delivered into his target.

Which gave the deathclaw ample opportunity. The creature immediately lashed out at Nate with one of its claws, giving Nate mere moments to respond. Nate quickly held up his minigun to block the blow and the deathclaw's hand connected with the barrels of the weapon. There was a sickening sizzle that emanated from the deathclaw's hand as flesh burned under the intense energy of super-heated metal. The deathclaw roared in pain as it smacked the weapon out of Nate's hands, prompting him to swear as he immediately began to back-pedal, drawing his .44 magnum revolver and began firing while continuing to retreat.

The deathclaw would have none of it. The massive creature kept advancing until it wrapped its hand around Nate's upper torso, still aware of the jetpack that he had on his power armor. The deathclaw didn't let the Sentinel have a chance to do any real damage while up close and personal, so it lifted him up and threw him away as if he were nothing more than a tin can.

Nate flew backwards through the air for quite a few feet before he made contact with the ground. The sheer force of the throw caused him to continue sliding across the ground, metal sparking against the concrete before he slammed right into the driver side door of a parked police cruiser, causing it to shift back a few inches before settling again.

Even as he hit the side of the vehicle, Nate had already drawn his sidearm yet again to fire it at the deathclaw in anticipation, only to find that its attention was no longer on him. Instead, it had turned its attention on the more elite looking officers that had only recently shown up on the scene, who were now firing their weapons on the creature as it now advanced on them.

Nate groaned in annoyance. This deathclaw sure was living up to the title of 'mythic', because its strength was nothing short of legendary. Normally, even a deathclaw would have gone down from a direct clip of minigun ammo fired into its underbelly. But this thing had not only taken that like a champ, it also took him trying to punch its windpipe closed, which had worked in the past on weaker variations of deathclaw.

But this thing was still standing and still fighting. Nate glanced at the officers that were still bravely fighting this creature, most rounds bouncing off of the incredibly hardened scales of its hide while those few rounds that did make their mark in the underbelly didn't seem to bother it in the least.

Nate knew he would have to finish this thing fast if he was to avoid any further collateral damage. How he hadn't seen a fatality yet was nothing short of a miracle.

Which by the looks of this fight was what it would take to bring down this damnable deathclaw.

As if fate was listening to him, the radio in the car began to spout information about the fight that was raging in front of him, the dispatcher working to keep everyone as informed as possible. While the radio itself was useless in this situation, Nate realized that the car itself was still turned on and ready to be driven. He got up and stared at the car before looking back at the deathclaw.

His grinned as he formulated a plan in his head. Nate immediately opened the car door and set to work.

Nick and Judy continued watching as the SWAT officers continued to pour led down range and into the creature's body. The creature meanwhile had begun to move considerably slower, the constant fighting finally taking its toll on the creature's strength.

Weakened or not, all of the officers knew it was still an incredible threat to them all.

The creature continued to advance on the SWAT officers, slowly diving either way in an attempt to throw off the aim of the brave officers who continued to fire at the creature, even as it closed the distance.

As it approached the large armored van, it raised one of its massive hands slowly into the air giving the officers plenty of time to react to it move. By the time the creature brought its arm down the officers had all successfully gotten out of the way. The arm came down and slammed into the back of van, driving the front end of it into ZPD office causing all sorts of automated alarms to sound in response.

All of the officers looked at the van before looking back at the creature before once again firing again, some reloading their weapons as in the process of the fight they had bled them dry.

The creature began to stumble backwards, its claws gripping its belly as it did so. Once of the SWAT officers turned to face his fellow officers, "Come on guys! We have this thing on the ropes! Let's finish this!"

As a group, the officers stepped out of cover and continued to fire at the monster as it continued to stumble back. Under the unrelenting torrent of fire power, the creature was forced onto one of its knees and it began to crouch down to the ground, arms still held tightly around its underbelly and it lowered its head to maximize its protection.

Nick and Judy watched silently, jaws hanging open in awe as they saw the SWAT team ever so slowly bring down such a massive monster. The let out a weak smile as they saw the thing finally lower itself down so that it was now laying on a single knee, sparks still flying off of its hide as bullets continued to rain down onto it.

Sergeant Austin looked to the side and saw a massive rhino officer slowly pushing the van clear of the building entrance, clearing the obstruction and allowing access to the building once again. The Sergeant motioned to the rhino. "McHorn!"

The rhino in question turned to face the panther.

Austin smirked and showed a bit of his pearly white teeth as he motioned towards the crouching monster, "Bring it down."

Officer McHorn grinned evilly as he began to charge towards the monster, the officers halted their fire as the massive mammal quickly charged the downed creature. Nick and Judy were cheering as McHorn ever steadily closed the distance between he and the monster. They just wanted to see this whole ordeal end and for peace to reign again.

But it was not to be.

As McHorn got close to the reptile, everyone present could swear they saw the monster grin as it looked up to see the charging rhino. McHorn could only let out a gasp as he realized what was about to happen.

As quick as lightning, one of the claws clutched around its underbelly shot out, lethal claws aimed directly at the lower torso of the rhino.

Multiple gasps could be heard throughout the force as they heard the sound of claws ripping through fabric, Kevlar, and flesh all in one horrible motion. McHorn held a face of utter surprise and shock as he slowly looked down to view the damage done to him by the terrible monster.

He felt something wet drip down his chin and he shakily put one of his paws to the liquid and pulled back to view it. He let out a shaky gasp as he viewed the crimson soaked appendage staring back at him. McHorn let out a sharp gasp as he felt himself get lifted up into the air by the still very much alive creature that now stared straight into his face with its one good eye. The creature then flexed its other hand and brought it down low, intending to deal a final, killing blow.

Judy looked over at Nick and slapped him on the shoulder, "That thing is going to kill him Nick! We have to save him!"

Before he could even react, Judy had hopped over the car and began bounding towards the creature. Nick reached out towards her trying to stop the determined bunny, "JUDY!"

But she kept going, which caused Nick to punch the hood of the car in annoyance before he steeled himself and began to follow in her steps, though at a slightly slower pace, "Judy! Stop! You'll get yourself killed!"

Within moments, Judy had gotten within scant feet of the struggle before quite literally hopping into action. The lithe bunny jumped up into the air, aiming for the creature's lower arm. She impacted and used her momentum to push herself off of the arm and jumped up, the creature now giving her its full attention as it followed her motions with its head.

She quickly drew her tranquilizer gun and aimed it at the creature's remaining good eye and let the dart fly loose. The dart found its target causing the deathclaw to roar in rage at the loss of its last good eye. It let McHorn slide painfully off of its claws, making the horribly injured rhino hit the ground painfully with a resounding thud before he began to drag himself away from the creature.

The creature meanwhile brought up the blood-soaked hand to its face to protect it from further trauma.

And used its other hand to swat away the pesky mammal that had done this to it. It viciously swiped at the air where it remembered where the small mammal was and grasped. Its reward was a panicked shriek from a now trapped rabbit.

The creature immediately spun around and threw Judy clear across street, her small body roughly sliding across the ground before painfully colliding with the curb and coming to a complete stop.

What had taken no more than a few seconds had felt like an eternity to Nick, who stood still halfway between Judy's completely still body and the deathclaw that had since removed its hand from its face and now stood completely still, both hands held at the ready for whatever may come. SWAT officers silently worked together to drag the still bleeding and breathing body of McHorn away from the reptile that had ruined his body.

Nick didn't even hesitate as to his next course of actions.

He dropped the weapon he was holding and began sprinting towards his best friend, who laid still in the gutter. "Hold on Judy! I'm coming!"

As soon as he finished talking, he could see out of the corner of his eye the head of the monster that had done such a terrible thing to a fellow officer and his best friend turn its ruined face towards him suddenly. Nick felt himself sprint even faster as the creature began to quickly follow the sounds his paws made as he sprinted across the pavement. Nick was only feet away from where his best friend laid, hands stretching out in an effort to grab her and drag her away from everything when he felt his entire body be gripped by a terrible force.

Nick felt himself get lifted off of the ground and forcibly turned around and was forced to stare the creature dead in what remained of its eyes.

He could feel the color drain out of his face as he was effortlessly lifted into the air by the monster. Nick now found himself in a terrifyingly familiar situation as he looked down and saw the creature flexing its other hand as it prepared a devastating killing blow on the much smaller vulpine.

The world seemed to slow down as he looked back over to see Judy still laying where she had impacted the ground, not having moved an inch since she ended up there.

Nick didn't care what happened to him at that point, as by now death seemed imminent to him. Judy laid lifeless on the ground, the patrol officers were hopelessly outmatched, and while SWAT was taking up positions around the creature preparing their shots but were still too far out to do anything to stop it. Nick didn't care about all that.

All he wanted was for Judy to make it out of that damn gutter, for her to get up and get out of there and save herself.

After everything she had done, she had deserved at the very least to get out of this mess alive. And if his death meant she got more time to escape, he couldn't care less.

He looked back down at the creature that still blindly stared at him with its cold and blackened eyes. Nick looked expectantly at the creature, simply waiting for the end, continuing to stare at the creature as the creature stared back. He took his final moments to look at the visage of his executor.

Its enormous teeth impossibly shoved into a massive set of jaws set into a skull that looked like it had come out of hell itself. Dirt brown scales covered its body, now scared by bullet markings and darts that had gotten stuck between the scales of its hide. And of course, those terrible wicked claws attached to arms that absolutely rippled with muscle.

All the while, Nick could only hear the sirens of cars around him from the cars that stood idle around him, their lights casting an alternating symphony of red and blue lighting on the ground.

Which was when Nick noticed something unusual.

One of those sirens seemed to be getting louder, as did some of those lights.

Both fox and reptile turned to look towards the source and saw a police cruiser speeding towards the duo at max speed, siren blaring and engine roaring as it sped right towards the legs of the creature.

The creature let out a surprised yelp as it was literally swept off of its feet as the speeding vehicle collided with its legs. The sheer impact forced the creature to let go of Nick and he began to fall to the ground. He let out a yelp as he hit the ground, stunned but otherwise unharmed.

Nick let out a brief sigh of relief before he heard the sound of metal impacting the ground nearby.

He turned his head and felt his body freeze up as he saw the armored figure rolling across the ground as it jumped out of the car it had slammed into the massive creature. The car meanwhile continued onwards, dragging its unwanted occupant along with it.

The creature looked over the roof of the car and at the increasingly distant officers and roared in defiance, even as the car careened onwards. After a few seconds, the car sped into the famous watering hole of Zootopia, right in front of City Hall. A large splash occurred as the cruiser slammed into the water, creating a massive cascade of water that slipped onto the concrete around it. The car stayed afloat however, and the creature clambered over the top of it, letting lose a roar as it glared at the individuals who dared to fight it.

Nate looked at the car and continued counting down in his head, waiting for the inevitable to happen. When he got down to three seconds, he lowered his body to the ground and covered the back of his head with his hands instinctively.

At two seconds, the officers looked at each other wondering what it was doing.

At one second, Sergeant Austin realized what was going on and turned towards his fellow officers. "DUCK AND COVER MAMMALS!" Mammals everywhere began to dive for cover as the inevitable became clear.

As soon as Nate got to zero, there was a massive explosion from the car that had slammed into the deathclaw. But it was no ordinary explosion, because it wasn't just ordinary ordinance he had put into the car.

In addition to regular explosions, there were also several massive spheres of raw, green energy that lit up the surrounding environment in a brilliant flash of green light. Regular explosions worked in conjunction with plasma based explosions to create a symphony of death around the deathclaw, shattering nearby windows and setting off car alarms for blocks around.

Officers all around the area slowly got to their feet to get a better look at what had happened. The watering hole in which the car had detonated in was filled with steam from the vaporized water, which had quickly turned the water into steam from the intense energy released in the explosion. Their views inside of the steam was obstructed from just how intensely thick it was, masking the contents within from view.

And ever so slowly, all of their attention turned towards the armored figure as it slowly stood from the ground it had embraced mere moments ago. Its armor softly glinting in the fading sunlight as it stood to its full height and turned to face the smoke still emanating from the watering hole. It stood still as it continued to stare at the remains of its master plan to end the fight, arms held at its sides as silently stared, seemingly unaware of the officers around it.

But Nate couldn't afford to take his eyes of the scene of the explosion.

The officers around him were all letting their guards down for the most part, which was something Nate had learned to never do when it came to deathclaws. You only ever let your guard down around them once you knew for sure whether or not they were actually dead.

He held the weapon in both hands as he slowly approached the steamy cauldron that once was a pool of some kind, eyes never leaving the column of steam that continued to rise out of the pool. He took a few steps before stopping himself around 50 feet away from the pool and simply stared at the pool.

The officers all watched silently as the armored figure continued moving, drawing yet another lethal looking weapon from literally nowhere. Nick and his fellow patrol officers soundlessly watched as a few members of the SWAT team slowly approached the figure, their weapons drawn to the figure as they moved to apprehend it.

They were stopped when the unbelievable happened.

They all heard a roar from the watering hole.

Their weapons instinctively snapped to the direction that the sound had originated from while the armored figure still calmly cradled its weapon in its hands.

All of the members of the ZPD and the SWAT team let out a collective gasp of terror as they saw movement coming from the watering hole in the form of a massive reptilian monster.

It slowly sauntered out of the hole now thoroughly covered head to toe in a sickly green plasma that had come from the blast, the high energy plasma dripping to the ground leaving noticeable burn marks where ever it made contact. The creature continued marching forward slowly as it let out grunts of pain from the effort that now went into making the smallest of movements. It let out a massive roar as it kept marching forward, seemingly shaking the earth around it from its intensity.

One of the SWAT officers voiced the ideas of the entirety of ZPD, "How in the name of all that is holy is that thing still alive?"

Sergeant Austin was about to move his men in position when everyone noticed the armored figure ever so slowly walk forward and slowly approach the monster.

Nate took a few steps before he shouldered the massive rifle and took aim at the deathclaw. He kept his calm as he kept the rifle shouldered and aimed the massive rifle towards the monster. Nate aimed the weapon at the leg that he had previously injured using his minigun, crosshairs being painted over the spot where the minigun had torn through the flesh. Nate took a deep breath to calm his breathing before squeezing the trigger, the immense roar of the weapon's report echoing off of the buildings around and the massive recoil forced Nate to flinch backwards a bit.

The combination of all of the firepower it had absorbed throughout the fight, the explosions weakening it, the plasma partially ionizing its super hardened scales, and the ferocious power of the .50 BMG round proved too much for the legendary creature to bare.

There was a sickening crack of bone as the leg of the monster literally exploded and the deathclaw fell to the ground hard. It roared in pain as it landed on the stump where there was once a leg and fell forward, catching itself on its hands before glaring back at the Power Armored soldier before continuing to drag itself forward to try and get to the human that had put it into so much pain.

Nate looked on at the deathclaw as it literally dragged itself forward to try and get to him, blood trailing behind it as its leg stump continued to spew forth a fresh stream of crimson liquid. He drew the bolt of his rifle back and then forwards again to chamber a fresh round into the weapon before he once again aimed it at the creature, this time going for a kill shot.

Nate once again shouldered his weapon and painted the crosshairs on the creature's head, right between the eyes of the monster. He took another deep breath as he squeezed the trigger, letting another devastating round loose on his target.

The deathclaw's now headless body stood as upright as it could as its head literally exploded off of its shoulders, spewing forth a fountain of gore and blood from its new neck hole, pieces of skull and brain being literally launched from the sheer force of the round. Its hands briefly went up to grip at its now missing head before falling down to the ground, the rest of the body not far behind. The body continued to spasm on the ground as the deathclaw's body caught onto the fact that it was now dead and its body desperately tried to cling onto the life that was finally extinguished from it. A few seconds later, the body stilled as it finally went silent, headless neck still spewing forth a stream of gore onto the pavement below.

Nate let out a sigh of relief as he lowered his rifle before returning it to his pip-boy. It was over, it was finally over. Silence reigned over the street where but a few minutes ago a fight to the death had once reigned supreme. The silence was only broken by the sounds of the sirens that still blared their haunting tones over the silence and the sounds of emergency officials working on the scene. Nate was made aware of their presence by the sounds of some of them vomiting at the grotesque sight that they had just witnessed and others tending to the wounded rhino who still laid on the ground.

He didn't blame them one bit, his life and what it entailed him to do was quite grotesque indeed.

Though he now set his mind on his next goal.

Getting the hell out of there so that he could figure out where the hell he was and appropriately plan his next move.

Nick slowly stood up as he saw the massive creature finally fall to the ground. He felt a bit of bile rise into his throat as he saw the blood pouring out of its neck and onto the cold pavement below and brains splattered across the pavement. Even still, he couldn't help but feel immense relief wash over him as the creature no longer posed a threat to the mammals of Zootopia.

Including his little bunny friend Judy.

The fox's eyes widened as he realized that she was probably still in that gutter, just lifelessly lying on the cold hard ground.

He turned to face her and saw her slowly moving as she tried to get up, but stumbled a bit and slid back down to the ground. He began sprinting over to her as fast as his legs could carry him. "Judy!"

He dropped to his knees and slid a bit as he came to a halt by her side. He gently rolled her over so that she was now lying on her back and watched as she coughed a bit before opening her eyes, soft violet eyes looking up into his green ones.

She grunted a little as she oriented herself to view Nick's tear stricken yet relieved face dead on, "Nick. What happened?"

Her only reply was a sudden hug from her best friend as he held her close to him. She could feel Nick shudder as he held her small body tight to his lithe one and silently cried onto the top of her head. All Judy could do was grip at his body in an attempt to comfort the emotional fox as he kept silently weeping.

Nick slowly rocked her body in his arms, "Thank goodness you're okay Judy. I don't know what I would do if you… if you…."

Judy slowly patted him on the shoulder as she tried to shush him, "But I didn't Nick. I'm still here. So please just stop. I thought you had a policy of never letting them see that they got to you?"

Nick sniffled as he leaned back to look down at his best friend, a smile quickly growing across his muzzle as he saw that she truly was alright. He slowly shook his head, "You're my exception Carrots, and you always will be."

Judy felt a few tears threaten to leak out of her eyes, but she quickly rubbed them away with a sniffle and gently hugged her friend back, happy that the ordeal was finally over.

The embrace was quickly broken when Nick pulled back and began to look over his partner, checking to see what kind of damage had been done by the throw. "Judy, is there anything broken? Do you need to see a doctor or anything?"

Judy began to stand up and succeeded but not without flinching a bit and slowly tested each part of her body. She wobbled a bit on her unsteady legs, but nodded anyways to Nick. "Everything seems fine, just unbelievably sore."

Nick let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding in and smiled in relief. He shook his head, "I still want you to see a paramedic so that they can tell for sure whether or not you are fine for sure."

Judy let out a little chuckle, "What, don't trust me you emotional fox? Fine, I'll see a medic if it'll make you feel better."

Nick nodded his head, "Yes it would."

Judy then sighed and sat down on the curb, Nick joining her not too soon afterwards. "So my dumb fox partner, what did I miss?"

Nick went to answer him when they both heard the sound of metal clanking on metal and turned towards the source.

They both felt their blood freeze at the sight of the armored figure picking up its massive six barreled weapon and watched as it began to inspect the weapon. It used its hands to slowly rotate the barrels, checking it for damage. It had been inspecting it for but a second before it slowly turned its head to view the duo.

Nick and Judy paled as they finally got a good look at the armored figure in all of its terrifying glory.

It stood head to toe in gun metal grey armor that looked strong enough to stop a charging rhino dead in its tracks, which had been proven in the fight when it got hit by a claw that was strong enough to rip a light pole out of the ground and remained standing. A quartet of pipes jutted out of the back of the suit, indicating the presence of the jet pack that they had seen it use during the course of the fight to maneuver around the now dead monster. Through small gaps of the armor, they could make out tubes and wires that were, as with the armor itself, heavily reinforced for added protection.

Both eventually snaked their looks up the body before locking onto the head of the creature, looking dead into the dark eyes that it had. The eyes blankly stared back, betraying no emotion nor thoughts whatsoever to the duo.

As they stared at him, Nate stared back at them.

He took in the sight that laid before him. A fox and a rabbit clad in police clothing.

All of which he hadn't seen since before the bombs fell. For over 200 years, the very idea of a police force had long since laid abandoned in favor of a principle in which one was in charge of their own idea of justice. If someone wronged you, it was up to you and only you to right it.

To end up somewhere with police officers, honest to God police officer, told Nate one resounding fact.

Where ever he ended up at least had some semblance of pre-war humanity.

Ironic that it looked like animals had adapted it when humans had all but abandoned it.

He was immensely curious as to how these sentient animals came to be, but was more concerned with the vast numbers of officers that surrounded him.

And he wasn't interested in causing any more of a scene then he already had.

So, he dematerialized his minigun and used his jet pack to get to the rooftops of the buildings around him.

Nick and Judy had to flinch backwards from the heat the jet pack emitted as the armored figure flew up and to the rooftop above them.

It landed heavily with an impact that could be heard even from ground level and turned to look out over the scene. With a final look over, it turned and walked out of sight, heavy footsteps still being audible as it lumbered away.

Nick and Judy stood still as they watched where the massive suit of armor had vanished from then back to each other, then slowly turned to the body of the other creature that laid dead on the pavement. The reptile's body was already being inspected by some of the members of SWAT, who were cautiously approaching the body as if they expected it to jump up and begin attacking again.

They began to survey the damage the fight had caused. The watering hole still smoldered with smoke from the intense explosion that rocked it, littered cars everywhere still laid abandoned by their owners who had left them behind in favor of escaping from the intense fight, bullet casings and spent darts and tasers littered the ground around them.

But of course most of their attention went to their wounded comrade, who by now was being loaded up onto a stretcher that could accommodate his size. The paramedics all talked at a rapid pace as they quickly loaded him onto a large mammal ambulance that then quickly sped off to one of the local hospitals to save him. Both silently wished the officer the best of luck in making it through such traumatic injuries.

Nick and Judy slowly turned to each other before Judy asked the question that was on every officer's minds.

"What in the world were those things?"

Nick just turned back to the corpse of the large reptilian monster that had nearly claimed their lives, "I don't know Judy, I really don't know."

They sat there silently, wondering what the world held in store for them. Not only did they have one dead, thing, lying on the street, but now there was another equally as lethal creature that had successfully evaded them during a time of crisis and could now be anywhere with that jet pack.

They could only hope that its intentions were peaceful.

They only silently stared at the scorch marks that the creature had left behind, hoping for the best.

 _Meanwhile…_

Nate continued to run away from the scene of the fight he had just had, the last thing he wanted was to be arrested by a local police force before he knew what they intended to do with him. If he had known more about them, perhaps he wouldn't have left. But as it stood now, there were simply too many unknowns to take such a risk when they could end up doing who knows what to him.

He continued to jump from rooftop to rooftop, using his jet pack when necessary. After about ten minutes of constant running and jumping, he came to a halt on a single rooftop and knelt down to catch his breath. While he wasn't exhausted per say, fighting a Mythic Deathclaw was by no means a relaxing ordeal. He grunted in annoyance, the damn thing had bent the barrels of his minigun, meaning he would now have to go out of his way to find enough metal to make repairs to the weapon to make it operable once again.

Nate stood up as his mind wandered to the creatures he had seen surrounding him. From the buffalo that had been caught in the grip of the deathclaw, to the panther leading the SWAT team he had seen, and then to the fox and the rabbit that had been the last creatures to be seen by him before he left.

Sure, he had seen creatures like that before. But that was over 200 years ago before the bombs fell, and they were in zoos then.

Now they were fully sentient and intelligent, if the weapons they used were anything to go by and the fact that they made up a police force.

Something his species hadn't seen in over 200 years.

They walked like humans. They talked like humans. They acted like humans.

But they weren't.

And that raised about half a million questions in his head, questions he intended to get answers to.

He turned around to look back at all of the progress he had made in his run to get away, and the sight before him made his breath catch in his throat. He looked up at the towering sky scrapers that lit up the night sky, their unscathed hulls reaching up to the heavens. The lights kept the now twilight sky perpetually lit, both at ground level and up higher up in the towers.

All around him, he could hear the sounds of traffic and horns from cars making their way on the roads that surrounded the buildings he stood on. The chatter of people as they went along with their days as if nothing was out of the ordinary. The sounds of sirens from emergency vehicles as they raced more than likely to the scene of the fight he had just escaped from, helicopters shining spotlights down on the scene in question.

Nate felt his blood freeze and his face pale.

He recognized it.

He recognized all of it.

He was in a major city.

As in one from before the war.

The infrastructure, the civility of it, the calmness, even some of the architecture, it was a major city that wasn't being used to harbor hordes of raiders and other unspeakable horrors. There were no sounds of gunfire, no screams of pain as someone died in agony, no cries of the damned from the monsters infesting the streets.

It was as if he had gone back in time, back before survival became a daily ordeal that one had to undertake in order to see the next sunrise.

He felt himself grow lightheaded as he took in the sights around him. No constant warfare, no radiation being registered on his Geiger counter, nothing.

It was peaceful, something he had long since thought impossible in the modern age.

He slowly turned and stared at his new surroundings, a single thought dominated his mind as he continued to stare at the sky scrapers that towered around him.

"Where the hell am I?"

 **AN: And there it is. Again, I must apologize for any drop in quality, my mind hasn't been on this story due to the sheer amount of life I had to deal with, between family matters, medical issues, and college dominating most of my time.**

 **I only hope that I'm able to get the next chapter out sooner than this onc.**

 **Again, I apologize for taking so long.**

 **Until next time.**

 **-Alpha 001**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Hooray. Another chapter.**

 **I really apologize for taking so long in posting this chapter, to me it is absolutely inexcusable to take this long between chapters, I sincerely apologize.**

 **I just really had to work through some writer's block and kind of had to force my way through this chapter. Do not worry, I'm not going to abandon this story that easily. Only something downright catastrophic will get me to do that, and even that's nowhere near a guarantee.**

 **So in regards to story quality, I'm sorry if it has suffered.**

 **In other regards, I recently learned that (minor detail) one of the wolves' names, Fangmeyer, actually belongs to a tiger and the wolf previously known as Fangmeyer is actually Delgado (I think). Yeah, they decided to change the names of some of the characters suddenly. My bad on that regard.**

 **Anyways, comments.**

 **Blinded in the bolthole: That's one of the great things about Fallout 4, you can argue that ANY faction is the best choice for the Commonwealth. I can definitely see the arguments for the Minutemen; they actually make an effort to help people in that ALL of their side quests involve in doing such, they can literally come to the aid of the people in a minute's notice (hence the name), and generally know the Commonwealth landscape like the back of their hand. So I can definitely see why people side with them in many cases. I picked the Brotherhood however because to me it would be the faction that Nate would choose since they function far closer to a pre-war military than the Minutemen do, and he would find some comfort in a familiar environment in an unfamiliar world.**

 **C.C: I'm with you on the fact that Bethesda REALLY didn't build up on the fact that the Sole Survivor has been through some shit. They really should have made that final confrontation a bit more emotional, which was what I tried to do in my story.**

 **Guest (who aksed 'Does it take that fucking much to kill a deathclaw?'): In the game, no. Once you level up enough, you can destroy them with basically anything. I took on one with fisticuffs and one with next to no effort (thank you Paralyzing Palm.) However I wanted to make the deathclaws in my story, specifically the Mythic variety, a bit tankier otherwise the fight would have lasted all of 5 seconds.**

 **Luck out: Thank you for the compliment man.**

 **Superdale33: Thank you once again for the tips man, I'll make sure that the future fights aren't as wordy as this one. And looking back, I also see the repetitiveness of the chapter, and will work on that in the future.**

 **And now, story.**

It had been a long night for the mammals of Zootopia. All throughout the twilight hours and well into the night beyond, sirens screamed as emergency response vehicles roared through the streets answering their call to arms. Helicopters roared overhead as police choppers alternated between focusing on the scene of one of the bloodiest confrontations the city had ever seen to trying in vain to locate the one that had slipped away. Flying nearly side-by-side with them the news choppers reported on the newest event in Zootopia's history, trying desperately to get the latest news on the talk of the city.

For the police on the ground, it was an almost nonstop torrent of fires that needed to be put out.

The police found themselves stretched thing between keeping the crime scene under control to answering a plethora of emergency calls and overall just trying to keep the peace during the panic of the aftermath of the intense street battle.

The night had certainly taken its toll on Nick and Judy.

The rabbit had somehow found the strength to make it into her actual bedroom and collapsed onto her mattress still fully clad in her police attire.

Nick on the other hand had only just barely made it to the couch, and even then only his upper half had made it to the cushions, his legs and tail still laid flush against the floor of the apartment.

The exhausted fox let out a grumble as the sunlight reached his face. He cracked his eyes open before closing them and letting out an annoyed grunt and began streching a bit. Nick stretched out his arms and legs and let out a pained grunt as he slumped off of the couch and slammed onto the floor, letting out a gasp of pain as his sore body hit the floor. His ribs flared out in pain from the events of the previous day, still sore from being gripped so aggressively by that, thing.

Nick let out a shudder, Sure he was expecting some form of danger joining Judy in her escapades as a cop in the big city. But there was a difference between facing criminal scum and then there was literally staring death in the face. He could still perfectly recall the feeling of being held helplessly in the air by the terrifying creature, its massive claws crushing his ribs. Honestly, if it weren't for the armored one…

Nick cut the thought off there. There was no point in dwelling on the events of the recent day. For now, Nick decided to focus on today, and today was sure to be busy.

There were sure to be calls from all over from mammals asking if everything was safe in Zootopia after the most recent battle, calls about ultimately false sightings that they would have to respond to, an all-round tense attitude about the current situation in the city, et cetera et cetera. Every mammal and their mother would be worried sick about their safety after having seen such an event transpire on their streets.

It wasn't every day that the pavement literally ran red from the blood of fallen creatures.

But Nick would cross that bridge when he got to it.

Or rather, when he and his rabbit partner got to it.

Even though she had been tossed across the pavement like some piece of garbage, she was able to quickly reclaim her cool as soon as the fight was over. She seemed to so easily look past her brush with death and move on to the matter at hand, which last night was securing the scene of the fight and gathering evidence. Her ability to just keep going, no matter the situation at hand amazed him to no end. That skill to keep on moving, even after nearly getting killed by that monster she let nothing stop her from doing her job. Hopping from one task to the next like some kind of possessed bunny while he tried desperately to keep up with her. Her lithe form bounding through the swarm of forensics scientists as they all gathered evidence off of the road.

Nick chuckled back at that scene. The forensics guys were none too pleased to see the plethora of bullet casings left behind by the armored one's six barreled monster of a weapon, knowing that they would have to bag each and every one of them. Their grumbling forms as they looked at the small rabbit that was able to do the work load of three of them was especially amusing.

But after that, they were just so unbelievably tired, even to the point that the seemingly unstoppably bunny finally slumped over and admitted fatigue.

Which was brought Nick to now.

He knew that both he and his rabbit partner faced a potentially long and arduous day, so he let lose a characteristic grin as he decided to try and lighten the mood a bit before they began their day.

 _Meanwhile…_

Judy lied in her bed snoring softly as the day's morning rays shined upon her gray fur. The warmth of the sun ever so slowly roused her from her sleep and she began to groan lightly as she slowly moved her body into the sun trying to get as warm as she could. Even though she had begun to wake, she stayed defiantly oblivious to the world around her, but it did give her time to think on things.

Specifically, the fight that had happened yesterday.

She had expected conflict to arise in her line of work, both mentally and physically. The fight yesterday however proved to show her just how intense it could get when the line between the two began to blur. Most fights she had been in had been either one or the other, fights on the streets being physically exhausting and those fought in the offices of the ZPD were mentally exhausting, what with navigating the long lines of logistical red tape that they had to follow.

But the fight yesterday was looking to be a combination of the two. The sheer, raw strength of that reptilian creature had been nearly impossible to overcome, representing a great physical challenge. Even with all of the officers doing their best to overcome the creature, it still very nearly killed a great many of them with almost no effort on its part. Everything they had thrown at it was taken in kind and then turned back on them ten times harder; they hit it with darts and it nearly slices Anderson in half, they hit it with tazers and it nearly eats Bogo right there on the street, they hit it with lethal munitions and not only does it simply shrug off the lethal rounds but also impales McHorn effortlessly and nearly ends her career by slamming her across the pavement.

She was extremely grateful to the armored one for at least ending the fight, though by the aftermath of the fight that she had seen, it had not done so pleasantly.

And that of course brought her attention towards that armored figure, the beginnings of a great logistical and in-turn mental struggle. Just thinking about that full plate metal visage brought forth a torrent of questions to her mind. 'What were those things? What were those weapons the armored one had? Why were they fighting so hard? How strong was that armor if it was able to withstand a strike capable of ripping light poles out of the ground and slamming armored cars into buildings?'

But there was one question that rose to the top of her list, above all others.

Where did they come from?

One moment, she and Nick were having a calming talk with Delgado and Wolfford and the next moment they're in a fight for their lives after those two things literally materialized out of thin air.

There had to be a logical explanation to it, but right now it was impossible to find out.

Because if they came from somewhere else suddenly, there were only two creatures that could tell them where that place was.

And one of them had recently been decapitated by the other, leaving only one that could give them the answers they needed.

The armored figure.

That figure had been the one that shadowed her dreams that night, those blank emotionless eyes seemingly staring past her and looking more at what she was, rather than who she was. She couldn't help but shiver when thinking back to that haunting gaze it held.

She shivered harder knowing that it would ultimately her task to find it in the mess that was Zootopia. One look at the figure as it flowed throughout the battle showed everyone present that it was a capable fighter and a survivor. And a good survivor would be quite capable of disappearing and staying invisible, even in a crowded city like Zootopia.

The fact that it had a jetpack only made things even harder on them as it had a mobility advantage on them, making their jobs that extra bit harder. They would be able to find it given enough time, but it could just fly away and disappear again and again if it so chose to do so.

On top of that, they would have to deal with the real aftermath of that fight. Sure she had to help secure the scene of the crime and reassure the people of Zootopia with a warm smile and a friendly smile that everything was under control, but she was beginning to think more long term. How would this affect the structure of the city? How would the ZPD respond to this latest event? The list went on from there.

Her mind continued to delve on and on about the implications of yesterday, how it could come to change everything she had known previously about Zootopia.

That was until her nose caught the scent of carrot pancakes, her all-time favorite breakfast food.

It was that scent that ultimately roused her from her thoughts and she slipped out of bed and onto her feet, already mentally prepping herself for the day ahead.

She slowly slumped down the hallway and into the small kitchen they had where she saw Nick, the mostly nocturnal fox who never got up before she did, standing in front of the stove making their breakfast.

She chuckled at the sight, "Wow. There's a sight you don't see every day. A dumb fox who managed to get up before the rabbit just to make his best friend her favorite breakfast."

Nick looked back with his trademark grin, "Well, there are some things you still haven't learned about me. Such as how I am secretly a master cook, who was only using the Popsicle stand to help fuel my passion for the culinary arts."

Judy smiled before lifting up a nearby box, "Or your just an ex con-fox who knows how to follow instructions printed on a box" she said as she pointed to the culprit printed upon said box.

Nick's grin failed to waiver but he did stay silent for a moment before talking again, "A complete coincidence I can assure. But now it is time to bask in the fruits of my labor."

Judy only chuckled as she took her seat at their small table, ready to indulge in her morning meal.

Only to look down and notice that her plate was completely empty.

She snapped her head to look at Nick, who was licking his chops as he looked down at the duo of pancakes he had made.

For himself.

The irate bunny slammed her paws on the table, which got Nick's attention. "Hey Nick. What gives? Where's my breakfast?"

Nick only chuckled, "Oh. Well since you got up kind of late today, I figured that an appropriate punishment would be a lack of a morning meal. I personally think it would serve as an adequate lesson to help you get up in the morning like I myself have."

Judy only lowered her ears and pouted a little.

Nick shook his head slowly, "Oh. I know this trick. You're going to give me the old 'rabbit eyes' trick on me. I'll look at your face, be so overcome with guilt that I ultimately cave under your pressure and give you one of these delicious pancakes I worked so hard to create. Well, it's not going to work on me, Carrots."

Judy's lower lip began to tremble.

Nick crossed his arms, "Nope. Not going to work on me."

Her eyes began to glisten with tears.

Nick's smile began to falter, "You'll have to do better than that."

She began to sniffle, her nose twitching as she did so.

Nick closed his eyes and looked away, "I don't know what you're trying to achieve here Judy. You of all mammals should know that I have perfected those kinds of tricks. You are trying to swindle the greatest of con-foxes, and you should know that I-."

Nick's miniature speech was cut off when he heard the sound of metal scraping against ceramic and he looked over to see Judy eagerly cutting into one of the pancakes she had swiped from his plate when he looked away. The fox's smile completely fell when he saw her glance up with a victorious grin on her face.

Judy swallowed the bite that was in her mouth before speaking again, "I should know what Nick?"

Nick sighed as he saw that his own plate was down one delicious, hand-made pancake. He sighed in defeat, "That I fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book."

Judy chuckled, "Well, there's always next time you dumb fox. Now come on, we have to finish eating so we can get down to the station at such a time that we don't have to run at a full on sprint in order to get there in time."

Nick looked up, the characteristic grin reemerging on his face as he began to dig into his own meal, "Yeah, whatever you say Carrots."

Both mammals promptly dug into their morning meals, Judy quite literally tearing her pancake to pieces as she indulged herself in her favorite breakfast.

Nick however, switched between eating his own pancake and watching the bunny across from him ripping through her pancake with a ferocity most animals never even conceive of. He found himself looking more and more towards his bunny partner, simply trying to take in every detail he could.

It was amazing that even after their close encounter with death yesterday, she looked no worse for wear. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that he had seen her get tossed like a ragdoll with his own eyes, he might not even believe it had happened. But, then that brought up a very bone chilling thought.

They had both come so very close to losing this, he had almost lost her and she almost lost him.

She was a strong woman though and he held no doubt in his mind that she would be able to overcome his loss given enough time.

But Nick knew that he wouldn't be able to do the same. That kind of loss would be crippling to him, to the point of him losing everything he had grown to believe in these past few months. He shivered at the image of her being put into a box. He didn't care very much for the image. He also didn't care for the fact that it very nearly happened yesterday.

Judy stopped her eating as she looked up at her partner, who was blankly staring at her with an expressionless face, which was quite uncharacteristic of the fox.

Judy swallowed the bite that was in her mouth, "Nick. Are you alright?"

Nick swiftly shook his head to snap himself out of his self-induced stupor before looking back at Judy with a somewhat unconvincing grin, "Nothing to worry about Carrots. Just coming with glorious ways to get back at you for your refusal to let me get my revenge today."

Judy merely giggled, "And you tell me not to worry."

Judy then grabbed her now empty plate and put it down into the sink to be washed at a later time before turning back to her fox partner who was now just finishing his breakfast, "Besides Nick, you'll have to do your 'evil' planning at a later time. We have to leave if we're going to make it to the ZPD without having to full-on sprint there. Come on Nick."

She practically bounced her way to the door as Nick merely chuckled at her enthusiasm and put his plate in the sink before joining her, stepping out of their apartment and locking the door behind them. They both partook in small talk as they stepped down the staircase and eventually made their way onto the sidewalk of the street below their apartment.

Their somewhat chipper conversations were halted as they finally got their first real look at the streets of Zootopia as they coped with the news of the ferocious fight that had taken place not even 24 hours ago.

Zootopia always had a kind of cheerful mood surrounding both the city as a whole and the inhabitants within. It was like an aura that blanketed the city and made the vast majority of the mammals living there feel at peace with both the land they live in and with themselves, after all Zootopia was the place where anyone can be anything.

However the mood right now was quite somber.

Where there were once loud and bombastic conversations between groups of mammals talking about their day to day lives, there were now only quiet mumblings between individuals, almost as if the mammals were afraid of being loud. Like they might attract unwanted attention.

There were significantly fewer mammals on the streets as well. Usually when Nick and Judy make their way to the ZPD for their daily duties they had to essentially bob and weave their way through the swaths of people that usually flooded the streets. Now however, the streets looked like they belonged in a ghost town, with only a handful of mammals either walking down the sidewalk or driving on the mostly quiet roads.

It was unnerving to see the almost always fast paced city reduced to such a state, from bustling metropolis to almost a rural community in a matter of hours.

Nick and Judy knew firsthand the event that had led to such a state within their beloved city, and they probably knew exactly what made the mammals they had sworn to protect so fearful in the first place.

Sure the massive reptilian monster was terrifying. After all, it had proven all but unstoppable at the hands of the ZPD. Darts didn't work, tasers barely worked, and even their lethal munitions barely put a scratch on it. The monster on the other hand had effortlessly ripped light posts out of the ground, slammed a multi-ton armored truck into the front of Precinct 1, and very nearly killed McHorn in retaliation to their efforts to bring it down.

But what was even more terrifying than that reptile was the imposing armored figure that had finally brought it down essentially single-handedly. Its armor was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, easily taking on bullets that had struck it on top of taking multiple hits from a creature that could move entire armored trucks with a single blow and not even show any signs of pain. Its arsenal of weaponry it could pull out of literal thin air, with equipment that easily rivaled anything the ZPD could bring forth to bear on it. From its massive six-barreled rotating monster of a weapon that was able to put down more fire than five of the SWAT's lethal weapons to its other massive weapon that Nick had seen literally blow the head off of the reptilian creature.

What made the armored figure even more intimidating was that no one seemed to have any idea what it was, or more importantly, where it was.

After the fight, it had used a jetpack to fly up to the buildings around the area of the fight and then simply disappeared into the city around them.

Where it was, what it intended to do, no one knew.

It had shown no indication of doing so, but both Nick and Judy hoped that it wouldn't cause them harm.

Because everyone knew but no one was willing to say it, but the ZPD was clearly outclassed by such an individual. They would give it their all, sure. But even then there was that nagging doubt in the back of their minds that even that wouldn't be enough.

And as they approached Precinct 1, they were given a visual reminder of its skill in a fight.

The watering hole still laid in ruins with numerous mammals trying to repair the landmark of the city to its former glory. The cruiser the armored figure had driven into the pool was completely gone, utterly vaporized by the massive explosion that it had created, yet another testament to its lethality.

Just beyond the pool was perhaps the grimmest reminder of what it was capable of however.

While the body of the massive reptilian creature had been moved by scientists to be studied in a lab somewhere, the remains of its final moments still stained the pavement. The massive red stain still remained on the pavement as cleaning crews worked to try and scrub the massive stain away to make the streets in front of city hall once again presentable. Nick shuddered a little as he remembered the sight of the creature's head erupting into a fountain of gore.

It didn't help that his mind then wandered into territory he didn't want it to wander into. He couldn't help but imagine what would happen if the armored figure had turned its weapon to face him.

Or worse, to face Judy.

He didn't even want to imagine what his life would be like without the naïve little bunny. Where his life might still be if she had never conned him into helping her solve that case so many months ago.

He supposed he had to thank the armored figure at least that much, after all it had been the one to finally fell the beast and then simply left without even touching any of them.

All further thought was halted as they finally marched through the still shattered remains of what was once the front entrance to the ZPD, a sobering reminder of just how incredibly strong that creature was and how durable the other was for taking it on.

In quite contrast to the silence of the streets, the ZPD was a hive of activity. All around the fox and the bunny phones were constantly ringing, no doubt by civilians who just wanted to know if things were safe in Zootopia what with a massive armored creature on the loose or were otherwise curious as to what had happened yesterday. Officers moved swiftly as they darted to and fro, going between answering the calls of the people and other more pressing matters.

As they advanced through the swaths of people, they found themselves looking up at the normally overly flamboyant cheetah, who while he was doing his best to maintain his perky attitude, the bags under his eyes told the duo all they needed to know.

Clawhauser finished a call up with a worried civilian by giving them reassuring words that everything was under control and being handled appropriately, but the moment the phone was put down Clawhauser slumped over and let out a loud sigh as his eyes slid closed.

Judy jumped up onto the desk and shook the cheetah's shoulder, which roused him from his momentary respite, "Clawhauser, are you okay."

Clawhauser looked up at her and let out a massive yawn, "Neve-Never better Judy. Just tired from all of the mammals calling in. I had to stay here and keep an eye on the radio all night and help keep things organized. As a result, I never got sleeee…"

Clawhauser trailed off as his eyes slid closed yet again and he slumped over, asleep. Nick had by this time joined Judy on the desk to stare at the now passed out cheetah.

Nick let out a whistle as he looked at the unconscious cheetah, "Man, sleeping on the job. And I thought my work ethic was bad."

Judy elbowed the fox roughly, "Be nice Nick, he's clearly had a rough night. Just let him get a little rest."

Nick chuckled and crossed his arms and leaned closer to the cheetah's ear, "I'm just saying it would be a shame if Gazelle happened to call while Clawhauser was sleeping on the job."

Clawhauser immediately bolted upright and yelled out "GAZELLE!?" causing both Judy and Nick to flinch backwards, also causing the latter to fall off the desk and land on the floor below.

Judy had to share her attention between the now suddenly energized cheetah and her suddenly incapacitated fox partner. She got Clawhauser's attention by jumping in front of his face and began to ground him back into reality, "Calm down Clawhauser, she's not here. Nick was just yanking your chain was all."

Clawhauser's ecstatic face fell as he regrew his tired look, "Oh. Well if that's the case, I'm going to take a quick nap."

Both rabbit and cheetah looked at the phone as it rang, causing the cheetah to let out a sigh, "As soon as I answer this call."

Judy smiled as she saw the cheetah working diligently even through his clearly apparent exhaustion, "Hang in there buddy. This is what you signed on for."

Clawhauser merely nodded as Judy hopped off of the desk and landed next to Nick, who was by now leaning up and rubbing the back of his head and grumbling to himself. Judy chuckled at her partner, "That's what you get for fooling Clawhauser like that."

Nick looked up at her, "I didn't fool him, I just gave him a perfectly possible scenario that might happen should he stay asleep. Though I certainly didn't expect him to rise from the dead quite like that."

Judy shook her head and her face turned a bit more serious, "In all seriousness, are you okay Nick? That was quite a fall you took there."

Nick rubbed the back of his head a bit before standing up and stretching a bit, flinching a bit from the pain in his ribs flaring up, "No problems here Carrots, just ready to start the day."

Judy didn't buy it for a second, "Nick, are you alright?"

Nick sighed and rubbed his sides a bit, "Just a bit sore in the ribs is all. That thing caught me in a death grip shortly after it threw you across the street."

Judy's eyes immediately bolted open, "It WHAT!?"

Nick flinched back at her sudden outburst. The fox had forgotten that she had been unconscious for that bit of the fight and he had never bothered to tell her about it. So he tried to play it off a bit, "It's fine. Just a little sore it all, nothing I can't work with. It'll be okay Judy, I promise."

Judy's worried look disappeared a little and was replaced with a bit of skepticism, "Are you sure Nick? After all if that thing got a hold of you…"

Her sentence was cut off by a chuckle from Nick, "I said I'm fine. Geez you sound like my mom."

Judy let her worried look fall off of her face. She knew that if Nick really didn't feel up to the task of work today, he wouldn't lie about it. He wouldn't put either of them in jeopardy over something as petty as his pride. "Okay Nick, if you say you're fine, then I believe you."

She turned around and began marching towards the bullpen, "Come on you dumb fox, I want to actually be able to walk into the bullpen on time today."

Nick chuckled as both he and Judy made their way into the bullpen sharing a smile on their faces as they marched through the door, though those smiles fell quickly as they saw the state of the room.

Normally the bullpen would be full of the loud and bombastic shouts of officers rearing to go, ready to get to work for the day ahead. Sometimes they would hold small competitions between one another to try and get their blood pumping before going out into the field, arm wrestling competitions between Grizzoli and Anderson were quite commonplace.

Today however, the whole room was deathly quiet with nary a sound being produced by those within. Every officer remained quiet with their eyes downcast, many had spent the whole night dealing with the situation while others had nearly been caught by the massive creature. It was quite clear from a mere glance that everyone had been affected in some way, shape, or form by the fight yesterday. Some looked nervous but most simply looked tired.

However, the most noticeable thing about the entirety of the bullpen was the distinct lack of one veteran officer.

McHorn.

Every now and then the eyes of the officers would slowly drift to the massive and empty chair that stood hauntingly empty at the front of the room. While McHorn was never one for idle conversation, the mere lack of his presence was very much noticeable to the denizens of the room.

It served as a chilling reminder of just how vicious that creature was, to so effortlessly maim a veteran officer, and one of the largest at that. Just how close they all had come to paying the ultimate price.

The night had left the officers no time to discover the fate of their colleague, leaving only room for blind speculation to be had.

Nick and Judy silently walked passed the empty chair, glancing at it as they passed before rounding the desk and sitting silently on their shared seat.

Even though they hadn't interacted much in either of their times at the ZPD, both fox and rabbit felt as if the room was far too empty for its own good, the lack of the large imposing rhinoceros sitting right next to them made it seem as if the room was missing one of its steadfast walls.

Sitting to the right of McHorn's usual seat, Fangmeyer and Lobo seemed to share the same sentiment as they would every now and then glance towards the empty seat, a sad expression splayed across their faces, one that many an officer shared whenever they glanced towards the empty chair.

Judy let out a near silent sigh as she turned her attention towards the front of the room, "I hope that he's okay."

Judy jumped in her seat a little when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder and turned quickly to see the hippo officer behind them gently shake her shoulder to get her attention, causing both her and Nick to face him.

"Hey Judy. Are you alright? You took quite a blow yesterday."

Judy nodded her head and released a weak grin, "Yeah, I'm fine. WE'RE fine actually." She made it a point to grip her partner's shoulder and shake him a bit for good measure so that she got the point across.

Nick smiled a bit at the inclusion in her statement before it turned into his characteristic grin, "Yeah, not for a lack of trying though there carrots."

Judy snapped her head to berate Nick for making a joke about such a thing, but she and every other mammal's attention was swiftly diverted by the sound of the door opening shortly followed by the sounds of Chief Bogo's heavy footsteps as he made his way to his podium.

Every officer in the ZPD looked tired after the fight the previous night, but Bogo looked downright ready to collapse at a moment's notice with heavy bags under his eyes, which they could all understand given his job and title. In addition to carrying out the same duties the grunts had to deal with, the Chief also had to act as a liaison between the general public and ZPD which meant having to deal with constant barrages from knowledge hungry journalists. On top of that, he also had to help coordinate the various emergency response teams to help put out the fires that sprung up around the town following the fight, sometimes quite literally given the state of the watering hole after having been immensely damaged by the massive explosion that ripped through it. If that wasn't bad enough, every officer knew that he also did not get along well with Mayor Lionheart, especially after the Night Howler debacle, but after such an event he would definitely have had to hold numerous and long conversations with the lion in order to best direct the flow of resources to minimize further damage to the city.

Put simply, Chief Bogo had the work load of about twenty mammals riding on his shoulders at that very moment. For him to even still be standing was a testament to his strength and dedication, though it was quite obvious he still felt the pains of exhaustion.

Deep and labored breaths warned those around of both his extreme exhaustion and of his quite irritable mood. Everyone knew that it was generally a bad idea to get on his bad side, but today to do that would be suicide.

Which was probably why Nick decided to poke the bear just to see what would happen.

Nick let out whistle as he saw the Chief's state as he rounded the podium and took his place front and center of the room, "Man Chief. You really missed out on your beauty sleep huh?"

Just as Judy was about to elbow Nick for that remark, Bogo had picked up the podium and slammed it back down onto the ground hard, splintering some of the wood at the bottom of it as he turned his full attention on the much smaller fox, "NOT TODAY NICK! I HAVE DEALT WITH TO MUCH TO DEAL WITH YOU TODAY! SHUT UP OR GET OUT!"

Every officer in the room snapped up-right at the Chief's anger and Nick flinched back hard as the full fury of Bogo beared down on him.

Chief continued to stare furiously at the red fox before the buffalo grimaced in pain and grabbed at the shoulder that had recently been dislocated. He rubbed at it for a bit before looking at the room now filled with somewhat terrified faces of his fellow officers. He let out a sigh, "I'm sorry about that, I've just been under a lot of stress as of late and I haven't gotten any sleep since yesterday. Let's just move on to what we have today."

Bogo went to pick up the folder from the ground when his eyes happened to glance towards the open seat at the front of the room. The buffalo seemed to freeze for a moment before sighing and standing back up.

"But first, I have some news about Officer McHorn."

At this, every set of ears perked up and every mammal leaned in to hear the news.

Bogo sighed, "The good news is that he's alive."

The room let out a collective sigh of relief followed by brief cheering that was quickly cut short when Bogo raised his hand to silence them all, "The bad news is that while he did survive, he only just barely made it and he's still not out of danger yet. The docs say that it'll take him quite some time before he's ready to come back if he makes it out of this, a month at best but probably longer than that."

The chief looked over the room as he watched as his officers took in the news of their fellow veteran. While relief was the primary emotion that pervaded throughout the room, there were other emotions that were present; anger, sadness, and in the case of one relatively new rabbit officer, realization.

Judy had always been aware that being an officer of the law was not exactly the safest career in Zootopia, but it wasn't until yesterday that she finally realized just how precarious a job it was. Regardless of how dangerous it was, she had to steel herself in order to stand between the innocent civilians of Zootopia and those who sought to do it harm.

Like the creature from yesterday.

And yesterday, they had all seen firsthand the potential for what could go wrong when in the line of fire on the fine blue line, how close death could come to getting you while out in the field.

Bogo interrupted her thoughts when he coughed to get everyone's attention back to him, "Alright, enough introspect. Back to business."

He picked up the folder that had fallen to the ground in his bout of anger and opened it to read its contents. "Needless to say, priority number one today is dealing with the aftermath of the fight yesterday."

Bogo picked up a remote and pressed a button on it, which lit up a small television at the front of the room on the desk adjacent to Bogo, which soon after displayed video footage of the fight.

The video had been taken by either an incredibly brave or incredibly stupid civilian who had escaped the fight and made their way to the rooftop of one of the surrounding buildings where they had pulled out their phone and recorded some of the fight. The officers were granted a bird's eye view of the fight and were able to appreciate it from an entirely different angle.

From above, they could clearly see just how fast these creatures were. Both moved incredibly fast despite what their appearances would have one to believe would be possible from them, with the reptile moving unbelievably fast on all fours and the armored one maneuvering around in a jet pack laden suit of impregnable armor.

Bogo paused the video just as the armored figure began to drive the creature away from the chief and Bogo made his retreat into the ZPD building, redirecting their attention back to the chief of police.

All Bogo did was gesture to the television, "Mammals. The suspects of our newest high profile case."

He opened up the file and pulled out two photographs and pinned them to the wall behind him. When he turned to let the officers see it, they were greeted with shots from the very video they were watching, one of the reptile and one of the armored figure. The reptile's photo however had a big red slash running diagonally through it while the other one remained pristine.

Bogo began speaking again, "Until such time as we can identify just what these things are, we are simply referring to them by codenames: Biohazard for the reptilian creature for obvious reasons, and Armorer for the armored figure because of the fact that that is the name the media has decided to call him.."

He turned his attention back to the television, "The only thing that we know is what we can gather from the fight itself. We know that these things were clearly not on friendly terms, as is evident by the fact that the Armorer killed Biohazard during the fight and that the Armorer utilized a jet pack to evade police after the fight had ended, leading to his successful escape. We know that both creatures are extremely deadly and extremely resilient given how much damage they were able to receive and dish out in kind during the fight."

"While research teams have since collected the corpse of Biohazard and carted it away to be studied at Cliffside Asylum we still have no idea where the Armorer has gone or what he intends to do next."

Bogo removed his glasses and put the folder down, "So now it comes down to us to find him."

Judy reached her hand up to get Bogo's attention, which he acknowledged. "Sir, sorry to side track you a bit but why are you so confident that the Armorer is a 'he', or even a living thing at all?"

Bogo sighed as he shook his head, muttering to himself a bit before turning to look at Judy.

"Because he spoke to me."

Immediately the room broke out in a multitude of questions directed at the chief.

Who promptly silenced them with a raise of his paw, a loud grunt, and a glare intense enough to melt through iron.

Bogo calmed himself down before speaking again, "It was right after he had begun to drive Biohazard away from me and he didn't say much. All he told me to do was to get out of there and that he would hold off the creature. Which was exactly the reason why I ordered the SWAT team to only open fire on the Biohazard and not him."

Bogo then placed his hands upon the podium, "It is also the reason as to why I do not think he's a threat to us."

An officer stood up at the back of the room, "How can you be so sure about that Bogo?"

Bogo turned to face the officer in question, "Simple. Because he didn't leave us."

Silence permeated the room.

Bogo continued, "If he wanted to hurt us, all he would've had to have done was simply leave us to contend with the Biohazard. While I'm sure we could have taken it down eventually, Officer McHorn's injury is proof that it would have taken a serious toll on us without his aid. But the ultimate proof that I think he's not a threat to us…"

Bogo left the sentence unfinished as the video once again played to show the Steel-hazard picking up his six-barreled weapon slowly turn its head to look at Nick and Judy sitting on the pavement mere feet from them.

Fox, Rabbit, and unknown stared at each other for several tense moments before the steel-hazard took off on his jetpack and leading to the end of the video as the civilian recording it turned off their phone as they ran to get away as the Armorer had been heading for the very same rooftop.

Bogo turned from the video to the bullpen, "If he had wanted to kill you two, it would have done so there. You were isolated, weakened, and vulnerable. An easy target."

Judy's ears perked up and she looked straight at Bogo, "But it-er, rather he didn't. It ran away instead. Why?"

Bogo shook his head, "Like most everything else about him, we don't know." The chief looked back down at the podium and began to pour over everything he could, trying to decipher what the Armorer's plan was. But between the utter lack of information and his extreme exhaustion, he couldn't make any noteworthy connections.

Bogo looked over everyone and began to talk, "Okay, I'm going to make this perfectly clear. Until such time as more information is available about this Armorer, we are NOT to search him out, rather we will wait for him to appear seeing as how there are so many unknowns around him. Since he is clearly extremely well trained, going after him without knowing more about him could quickly lead us into a trap, so for now we keep our distance until we know more. Once we do, we will do everything in our power to make sure he isn't a threat to us or to our city. Until then it is business as usual; Hopps and Wilde, continue your investigation into the kidnapped predators. Delgado, Wolford, you're on patrol in Tundratown. Fangmeyer, Anderson, and Grizzoli; security at a public event in the park. The rest of you know you're assigned duties. Dismissed."

Everyone began chatting amongst themselves and began heading towards the door before Bogo shouted over the idle chatter, "One last thing!"

All heads turned towards the chief, "If you hear or see anything, anything at all pertaining to the Armorer, you let me know immediately. Understand?"

"YES SIR!"

"Very well. Stay safe out there everyone, who knows what he's up to."

And with that, the various mammals of the ZPD marched out of their meeting room.

Nick and Judy stopped a short distance outside of the bullpen, Nick sporting his characteristic grin and Judy sporting a rather uncharacteristic thoughtful expression, with her ears down and her eyes focused on some unseen object in front of her.

Nick immediately acted on this, "What's wrong Judy? I thought you of all mammals would love to have two big cases to crack at the same time."

Judy shook her head, droopy ears swinging behind her head, "It's not that Nick, it's just that I get the feeling that there is so much more to this 'Armorer' guy than we could possibly know. I mean I agree with Bogo in that I don't think he's a threat to us right now, but I just can't help but get the feeling that he is WAY more dangerous than we could possibly imagine."

Nick chuckled and patted her on the shoulder, "Hey, that's part of the job description, isn't it. 'Protect the streets of Zootopia, Put the proper parking ticket on the proper car, make sure the animals don't get too riled up, keep the peace, and oh yeah, when you have spare time deal with creatures with enough firepower to level a city block before you can even blink.'"

Judy chuckled and pushed his arm off of her, "Yeah, yeah, I know what I signed up for. But still, what will we do if have to, ya know, arrest him if he turns out to be malicious?"

Nick put his paws on the back of his head, "Well, you could always give him a lecture on how to properly use his weapons in the presence of civilians. By the time you're half-way done, he'll throw himself into a cell to get away from it."

Judy promptly socked the fox in the arm, prompting him to yelp and look at his partner as she stuck her tongue out at him. Nick smiled and chuckled before ruffling the fur between her ears.

Judy chuckled and pushed his arm away as she began to make her way toward the front desk, "Come on Nick, it's time to get to work."

Nick smiled as he followed his partner, ready for another day of investigative work.

"Right behind ya, Carrots."

 _Meanwhile…_

Nate grumbled a bit as he was roused from his sleep by the sun's rays hitting him in the face, making him sit up off of the scrounged clothing he had found lying around in the various alleys of the city he found himself in.

He sat up to survey his new surroundings, and for now at least, his new home.

The abandoned warehouse near the shoreline served adequately as a place to hideout from locals and those that would try to steal from him. Buried within a maze of multiple abandoned warehouses, he was confident that his little abode would go unnoticed by the local law enforcement, currently number one on his list of 'things to avoid.' Situated near him were three tables, one with electronic equipment and a map of the city on it, one with his minigun in a state of repair after having been fixed by the crafty engineer, and the last one being filled with random scrap he had used to repair said minigun. Next to the table with electronic equipment stood his X-01 Power Armor in a makeshift cradle made out of an abandoned forklift. It was by no means a luxurious set-up, but for the purposes of the soldier it proved adequate.

The events of yesterday were still fresh in his mind: the teleporter, the deathclaw escape, the actual teleportation, the fight.

But the one image that struck him the hardest, the one that haunted his dreams that night, was the image he had seen shortly after the fight had ended.

The urban night sky, lit up by the towering visages of skyscrapers, bright with life they held within. A sight of utter peace, one that humanity long though impossible, yet here he was sleeping in relative calm. Even here in an abandoned warehouse there were no ghouls, mirelurks, mole rats, bloodbugs, nothing. All he ever saw on his brief trip out of the downtown area of the city were people merely going about their days as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Then again, 'people' may not be the most applicable term here.

The people here were rather animals.

Sentient anthropomorphic talking animals.

Sentient anthropomorphic talking animals who were also police officers wearing police officer uniforms using officer tactics and some even using lethal weapons, like police officers.

He had seen some shit in his day, but that easily took the cake.

The looks he had seen on their faces, looks of scared yet determined officers ready to fight to save others. He could clearly see their determination in their eyes, that same determination that many in the Brotherhood had when they fought for what had to be fought for.

What had once seemed so unmistakably human now looked so unmistakably foreign. The expressions were all there, the emotions there, the hopes there. It was all so very human at the same time it was being applied to something not human. It just didn't fit right.

Though he supposed that it was rather 'he' that didn't fit right if the local news was anything to go by. He had heard what the locals had to think of his little firefight.

Shortly before he rammed the cruiser into the deathclaw, he had managed to remove several crucial pieces of equipment from the doomed vehicle which now stood proudly on his table of electronic equipment, all plugged into the local power grid and ready to be used. Beneath the electronic equipment was a map that he would glance at whenever he worked on the electronic equipment, trying his best to memorize the general layout of the city.

First of the electronic equipment was the radio which he was using to get a feel for how the locals interacted with one another in their day to day lives; how their culture worked, what current events were transpiring, the names to know and love, etc. He could use it to try and get a feel for how these animals acted and reacted to events on a day to day basis, which could serve him well should he learn how to play his cards right.

But since he first plugged it in, most news outlets had spoken of nothing but his fight with the deathclaw yesterday. Apparently, they had gone out of their way to blow the fight way out of proportion, some talking about far more destruction than there actually was and others going out of their way to glorify the action. What had seem to them like a horrible day on the streets of their beloved city was to him just another day in the Commonwealth, if not a relatively calm one given that there was only the single fight.

He couldn't help but grin at the relatively silly name they had given to him, calling him the Armorer of all things. While they certainly could've painted him in a better light, simply hearing the news say that anyone and everyone was to stay away from him gave him some much appreciated breathing room, so for that he was grateful.

The other news stations were, sadly, much like the ones from back before the bombs dropped spouting nothing more than pointless celebrity gossip, especially about this 'Gazelle' animal, and playing song after song at the request of the animals of the city.

Nate couldn't help but find it strange that how 200 years ago, he would have found all of this trite pointless and nothing more than white noise to break the monotony of long road trips. Now though, it was one of his most crucial life lines in understanding the city he found himself in.

A city the locals called Zootopia.

The pre-war survivor didn't have to consult any maps to know that this city did not exist before the war and from what he could gather from his time in the Brotherhood, at least on the east coast of the US, it didn't exist post-war either. So that left two believable outcomes of the teleportation; either it sent him somewhere the Brotherhood simply hadn't explored yet, or more likely, the teleporter sent him somewhere that wasn't a major target for strategic nuclear strikes during the Great War as was evident by the total lack of radiation.

And that was one of the big facts that Nate got hung up on every time he thought about it.

Since he had first arrived, his Geiger counter never went off, not even once. Even with the cleanest of places in the Commonwealth, the counter would still tick on and off as a breeze of radioactive wind swept past and caused the device to trip. But here, there was nothing. There was none on the wind, none in the soil, hell when he dunked his hand in the massive body of water near the warehouse it didn't so much as flinch from its wresting position.

It was as if this place had never been hit.

Which Nate concluded means that he got sent somewhere far outside the sights of the major warring powers of the Great Exchange.

But hopefully, not too far away that the Brotherhood of Steel wouldn't be able to find him.

Which led to the second electronic device he had snagged from the police car.

A working police radio.

One thing he noticed immediately about the radio was just how different it was from the standard radios of his day.

Not just in how they looked, but straight on down to how they ran.

It wasn't like he was unable to get it work, the principle was the same so figuring out how the device carried out its function was simple enough. But what got Nate's attention was just how different the device was.

Most radios from back before the war ran off of the car's nuclear reactor which kept them powered for decades before having to be recharged or replaced. As a result, they tended to be rather bulky and a bit on the heavy side.

That was not the case here, the radios from this cruiser were very slim in comparison to the bulky ones from the Commonwealth Police Department. But what really got his attention was the total lack of anything nuclear reactor related within its construction. The parts that were within matched the general design of the exterior of the device, all very small and quite specialized in what they did. Though given the time he spent as a popsicle and the history man has had with nuclear devices, he couldn't blame a post-war society from developing non-nuclear tech.

Did that mean the device was more advanced than anything he had ever seen?

No.

In comparison to the radios he was used to working with, these radios were quite antique. Even the civilian models in the Commonwealth were more high tech than this model. So figuring out how to get the device to work only took an hour or two.

What he was now trying to figure out was how to use the device without getting found out by the local population or more specifically the local police department, the ZPD as they're known. He needed to use the device to try and contact the rest of the Brotherhood, but by using that device, he would potentially be spreading his message all across the city. Which meant that anyone could potentially listen in on the message, or even worse, trace it back to him.

But it was a risk he had to take.

He got up and walked over to the desk, upon which laid the various devices he had snagged from the cruiser. He sat down on a salvaged chair and began to fiddle with the various cables jutting out from the back, making sure that it would have enough power to broadcast his signal and to make sure it would be able to send out a repeating message.

Knowing exactly what kind of signals the Brotherhood intel teams took particular interest in, he set the radio to broadcast at as high of a frequency it could reliably broadcast at.

So there he was, sitting at his desk in front of the radio getting his message to the Brotherhood straightened out. His gaze wandered around his new base, the large flat open interior only being broken by his little section in the corner closest to the body of water outside. A trio of tables surrounded his makeshift bed holding up his radio equipment and repair equipment for his minigun and the X-01 Power Armor that stood proudly, suspended beneath a disused forklift.

Sighing at his current situation, Nate began to ready the recording device he had set up and as soon as he was ready he pressed the record button and leaned close to the radio.

"This is a high priority message to anyone in the Brotherhood of Steel. This is Sentinel Nate Fox of the Commonwealth detachment contacting anyone from the Brotherhood. If you receive this message please respond. I am cut off from support and am currently hiding from the local population of a major and heavily populated city. If you can receive this message I will not respond unless the proper counter sign is given. The challenge is Icepick. This message will repeat."

Nate pressed the record button to stop the recording process and rewound the message and hit play. Hearing his own voice coming out he smiled and stood up and turned on the radio. Hearing the message come out of the radio let him know that his attempt was a success, his message now being broadcast across the radio waves.

He could only hope that there was some kind of deep recon patrol that would be able to pick up his message and get into contact with him.

Which only left him to do one thing, wait.

The worst part in the life of a soldier.

He sighed as he rubbed a hand down his face. This would not do well for him. When left alone with his own thoughts, they inevitably wandered back into his past, an experience he very much did not like.

So he decided that it was best for himself to do something else to occupy his mind.

And he had just the perfect idea to do so.

Nate grabbed his combat helmet and put it on his head and turned on the lenses. He decided that since he was in an entirely new place in a strange city filled with sentient animals that it would be best if he did some reconnaissance of the city to see if he could get any more concrete details on just exactly where he was.

The research went a bit further than just something to occupy his time with, Nate was legitimately curious about the history of Zootopia. How a city could get this big in a world hit by nuclear war was beyond him. Let alone how they had access to such an immense quantity of clean drinking water, that alone was usually enough to get entire raider gangs to unite and converge upon settlements to take that water as their own. The city alone would be enough to warrant a massive investigation from the Brotherhood of Steel.

And then there was the population. How had pre-war animals survived and attained sentience? The odds of nuclear radiation producing that kind of specific mutation was far too slim to be reasonable, there had to be another reason for their existence, one he intended to find out.

Everything that this city had in its possession stood for what humanity had lost; civility, peace, calm, and relative tranquility. Nate, and by extension the Brotherhood, needed to know the history of places like this if they were ever going to rebuild humanity. Of course they all knew it would be a long and arduous road ahead, but studying places like this that had actually gone out and done it were great places to start regardless of whether or not the population were sentient animals. Local research of massively successful settlements was crucial to understanding how to rebuild in a post-nuclear world. Studying the pasts and presents of cities such as this would be instrumental in reconstructing the hell pit that was the post-war America.

And for that, he needed to visit a library.

Finding a library would be his best bet, since they tended to be filled to the brim with all sorts of useful information pertaining to a city's history and culture. The Brotherhood made them priority targets for a reason, so Nate figured that he'd begin his local research there. And since there was one right here in the same district as him, this 'Savannah Central', that would be the place he would be investigating. It wasn't that far away either, he had caught a glimpse of the building on his way to the warehouse he now found himself in.

Which left him one last and rather interesting problem to figure out.

How the hell was he going to get around?

In most instances reconnaissance and local research was rather easy. Simply wear the clothes of the locals, hide any and all items that would give away your true affiliation, and live well outside of the limelight and everything usually goes off without a hitch. The Railroad had taught him that sometimes local recon was really that easy.

The problem with Zootopia was that he wasn't just a little different from the population, he was fundamentally different from the population. When one went out to blend into a population, it's generally implied that you are at least the same species as the population you're trying to blend into.

But Nate didn't even have that going for him here. His tactics had to shift from 'don't be investigated too heavily' to 'don't even get seen as that alone will blow your cover.'

Nate stood up and began pace as he began to brainstorm a solution to the problem.

While he could use his Stealth Boys to sneak around, that would be using too valuable of a tool on something that really shouldn't be used on something as low priority as research. He would still bring a few with him just in case he had to get out of a sticky situation, but he wasn't going to rely on them.

Using excessive or baggy clothing was out too. It would make him look way too suspicious, it would weigh him down, and worst of all if he got found out he would most likely be in the open and potentially surrounded and be less mobile from the bulk of the clothes and therefore less likely to escape.

If he was going to do this, he would have to ensure that he never even be seen.

It was then that his foot snagged on a loose piece of metal, causing him to lose his footing but recover before he could fall. He looked down at the piece of metal and pushed it to the side with his foot. As he moved it, he stopped as an idea crept into him mind and he looked up.

He would never be able to make it there above ground, there were far too many people who would be likely to see him, to many cameras and eyes watching him for his own comfort and he would almost certainly be set upon by the local law enforcement before he made it even half way there.

But that wouldn't be the case if he traveled underground.

He made his way towards the door and peered out of it, both to make sure that no one was there and to look for his ticket around the city. He looked for a few seconds before his eyes locked onto his target and he let out a chuckle of victory.

A manhole cover.

While it was by no means sanitary, it was a rather good idea, at least to him. The sewer lines followed the streets almost perfectly, so he would have no troubles navigating the system by way of the map taken from the police cruiser. There was obviously very little foot traffic going through them, so he wouldn't be bothered by the civilian population. And if worst came to worst, he was hoping that the police wouldn't want to follow him into the sewers and if they did he'd be able to lose them in the cramped and dark depths of the sewer system.

Using the sewer system to his advantage had worked in Anchorage, it worked in the Commonwealth, and it would work here. Being able to navigate by the threats on the surface was always a safe tactic, so long as no one knew you were going through them as being caught inside of them was a horrible situation, with only a handful of exit routes to take. However, seeing that no one would be looking for him down there, he figured that he'd probably be at his safest while down there.

So with his objective in mind, Nate thoroughly inspected and secured his own personal warehouse, making sure that every conceivable way in and out was blocked off to prevent anyone from getting in. After thoroughly securing the building and making sure every conceivable entrance was effectively barricaded or booby trapped, Nate slowly opened the last door that remained unblocked, the one closest to the manhole cover in the middle of an alleyway. He checked every angle for some unseen individual waiting for him to come out and for him to make a mistake, but after several tense minutes of looking for people that weren't there, Nate slid out of the door and promptly locked it behind him with a jury-rigged key that only barely fit into the jury-rigged lock. After testing the door to make sure that it wouldn't budge open, he stepped back and made his way over to the sewer entrance.

Nate crouched down and with a grunt of effort, lifted it up and slid it off of the opening revealing the stench-filled darkness below. He sighed as he lowered himself into the sewers and peered into the depths through his red eye lenses, bathing the area in front of him in a sea of red only visible to his vision. While it was by no means pleasant, Nate knew he had to go through the stench of refuse to get the answers both he and the Brotherhood wanted, if not for themselves than at least for the future of mankind.

"The shit I go through for the Brotherhood..." was all he said as he began to trudge his way through the sewer lines.

All anyone could have seen were two glowing red eyes that slowly made their way through the bowels of Zootopia, steadily making their way to the heart of the city.

Nate felt his pace quicken as he made his way ever closer to the library and towards the source of the answers he so desperately wanted to find, for him and for the Brotherhood.

 **AN: And cut. Once again, I apologize for the obscenely long wait between chapters this time around. I will do my best to not let that happen again.**

 **I apologize for any lack of quality, I really had to fight my writer's block here.**

 **In the meantime, have a good one all, and be safe out there.**

 **-Alpha 001**


	6. Story Update (This story isn't dead)

Hey everyone, this is not an update to my story I'm sorry to say, but do rest assured I am going to continue on with my story indeed.

It has come to my attention that I have left you all in the dark for far too long in regards to my story, and I am vehemently sorry that I have done that to you all.

My life simply got very hectic in the time from my last story update, to hectic for me to spend a lot of time to sit down and write my story.

Remember when I said that only a catastrophic event in my life would get me to stop writing?

Yeah, pro tip: don't ever give life that kind of window, because it will royally screw you should it get the chance. To name a few things that I have had to deal with (not me personally but fellow family members): work related injuries, cancer, shattered hips, sprained wrists, seizures, financing problems, college difficulties (getting the money to go to college) and other things I simply cannot list at the time of this writing. On top of that, my own time being sucked into college has further stolen time away from being able to write a story that has gotten far more attention than I could have ever possibly imagined.

Rest assured, I WILL KEEP WRITING, THAT MUCH WILL NOT CHANGE! It will just take longer than either you or I would like.

Once again, I apologize.

I hope to have the next chapter done within the next two weeks, preferably sooner than that, but I cannot say for sure.

Until next time folks, stay safe out there, you never know what catastrophe will strike next.

Alpha 001


	7. Chapter 6

**AN: Hello once again everyone, here's my next chapter.**

 **I would like to take a moment to simply say thank you all for sticking in with me on this one. Honestly, thank you all who responded to that last chapter, and I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart.**

 **I guess there's no point in delaying this story any further, so without further waiting, here you all go.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Fallout series nor do I own Zootopia. All characters belong to their respective owners.**

Judy's gaze wandered through the urban landscape of Savannah central as hers and Nick's cruiser drove through the barren streets. Where normally they would be held up by traffic, there was hardly a soul on the roads. They had seen it early that day of course, but there was a stark difference between seeing the emptiness of the roads and actually experiencing it first-hand.

Normally the streets would be filled with cars as the mammals within zipped around, going about their day to day lives with ease and within the comfort of their vehicles. To a sociable mammal like Judy Hopps, the near constant barrage of motors, horns, and voices was often enough to help her keep calm, to remind her why she had chosen her line of work.

Today however, there was no such peaceful chaos.

In the hour they had left the ZPD headquarters to continue their investigation and go on patrol through the streets of Zootopia, Nick and Judy had hardly seen any vehicles on the street, with only a few choosing to take to the streets. Even so, those they did see often looked up towards the rooftops, no doubt looking for anything remotely like the Armorer skulking around above them. Their faces held determined looks behind their eyes, they weren't about to let the events of the previous day stop their lives.

Even though the rest of those very same faces told the whole story. They were still very much afraid that such a creature as the Armorer was still lose and were very much wary as to what he was capable of doing.

Which was easily the reason why the streets were so empty. Most were deathly afraid of encountering the Armorer, and no one could blame them, they had all seen the news reports of the fight he had essentially single-handedly fought and won.

Nick whistled from his seat behind the wheel, "Geez, Carrots. I think we made a wrong turn into a ghost town here."

Judy's ears twitched towards her partner, "No kidding. Can't say I blame them though. That was a pretty intense fight yesterday, they have a right to be scared."

Nick shuddered a little in his seat, "Yeah, I should know firsthand how scary that guy can be. I saw what he was capable of. I mean, in the span of about three minutes he completely leveled the watering hole and blew the Biohazard's head off while our weapons merely ticked it off."

Judy quietly chuckled, "Yeah, but now that Armorer guy has a right to be scared too. Now that he has all of the ZPD on the lookout for him, it's only a matter of time before we find him. He'll stick his head out of whatever hole he crawled into, and when he does we'll be there to get him."

Nick smiled, "You make it sound so easy Judy."

Judy retorted, "And you make it sound like it'll be hard Nick."

Nick shook his head and continued to drive their cruiser, "Well, it's not like he blends in well with the mammals of Zootopia. I think it would be pretty hard to miss a seven foot tall armor clad figure wielding weapons straight out of our worst nightmares and flying around everywhere with a jet pack."

Judy merely giggled at his deduction, "Well, when you put it that way I do suppose he sticks out well enough."

Judy turned back towards the empty streets and turned her mind back to the topic of their discussion. The image of the armorer looming over her and Nick still fresh in her mind. The one resounding fact of that sight was one that was completely and utterly unavoidable.

Lethality.

The Armorer was clearly a very deadly adversary.

One that, even though there was no evidence indicating there would be a need to, would be quite dangerous to take on in a fight.

Judy sighed, "I just hope we'll be able to stop him is all."

Nick's smile fell as he glanced over to his partner. He slipped one of his paws over her shoulder and gave her a gentle shake, "Come on now. Bogo had a point earlier. If he was a legitimate threat, he would have done something by now. He clearly had the jump on us and has superior technology and armaments and all he did was take down the Biohazard and fly away. He's just hanging low for now, that's all."

Judy sighed, "I know I know, I just can't help but worry about it. I mean, there is still so much we don't know about him-."

"By not much you mean nothing at all."

"Shut up Nick, you get my point."

Nick chuckled, turned back to the road, and continued driving.

Judy continued, "The point still stands. Whether or not he sticks his head out, it comes down to us to stand between him and Zootopia whether or not he is in fact a threat. If he isn't a threat, we need to at least bring him in and talk to him to figure out exactly what's going on and where he and that… thing came from. And if he does turn out to be a threat to Zootopia, we'll have to make sure he isn't for long."

Nick briefly turned towards her, "That is of course if we can find out a way to get through that armor of his. We all saw how strong it was, not even the lethal weapons could put a scratch on it, and those are our last-resort weapons."

It was true. The ZPD SWAT prided itself on being the best of the best, and the best had adequately matched gear. Due to strict laws around such lethal gear, only the SWAT teams were ever able to get their hands on lethal equipment such as their SMG's, and even then they only sparingly used them as most situations could be resolved without having to resort to using lead.

But knowing that the Armorer had so easily shrugged off the best the SWAT team could throw at him…

Judy sat up straighter in her seat, "Well then, we'll just have to find a way around that. I mean, everyone must have a weakness of some kind. He may be good, but there is no way he's unstoppable, no one is."

Nick chuckled and kept driving, "Well, in any event, I'll follow your lead Carrots, for better or for worse."

Judy gave a nod of appreciation and turned her head to look out of the car.

Judy looked out of the window and to all of the buildings they passed by. To her, every single one of those structures could potentially be hiding a massive armored figure within. Though everything Nick and Bogo had said rang true within her head, she could not shake that dreadful feeling that loomed over her every time her mind wandered back to the Armorer.

There was still so much they didn't know about him, and not knowing WHERE he was, let alone WHAT he was, was just the icing on the cake.

The simple fact was that the Armorer was potentially one of the most dangerous individuals the ZPD had ever heard of, and he had simply dropped off the grid as soon as he departed from the fight he brought to their streets without so much as a trace or clue as to his whereabouts.

It annoyed the bunny to no end.

There were so many places such an individual could hide out in, plenty of opportunities to give the police the slip and to lay undetected for possible weeks on end. There were literally thousands of nooks and crannies that he could slip into and simply disappear without a trace, too many places to name.

And that's when Judy happened to realize just who her partner against crime was.

The con fox who knew this city like the back of his furry paw.

Judy turned to face Nick, a sudden burst of determination evident on her face, "Hey Nick."

The fox in question glanced at her before turning his attention back onto the road. "Yes?"

"Hypothetically speaking, if you happened to be in a situation in which you wanted to hide from every mammal in Zootopia and be far away from any eyes and ears belonging to the ZPD, where would you go?"

"No."

Judy looked puzzled at the sudden and brief response, "What do you mean 'no'?"

Nick pulled up at a red light and stopped the car to turn to face Judy with a serious look on his face, "I know exactly what you want to do. You want me to list a bunch of places that would be perfect for hiding someone as noticeable as the Armorer so that you can go after him. Am I right?"

Judy frowned.

"I thought so. Well normally I'd be all for going after the criminal and getting him behind bars and getting called a hero and all of that good business. But this guy's unique. I say we listen to Bogo and let him show up first, that way we have the advantage, not him."

Judy crossed her arms and looked out the window "I can't believe you're actually listening to Bogo on this one, it's so unlike you."

Nick sighed and jumped when the car behind them honked its horn and prompted Nick to wave an apology to the driver and kept driving. "Judy, I don't like this anymore than you do. Believe me, if it was anyone else we were looking for, I would be more than happy to join you on your escapades like back with the Bellwether case."

Nick briefly smiled at the memories of the two catching the ewe in the act before turning back to the topic at hand, "But the fact still stands. No, I'm not going to tell you the best places to hide out from the cops, because the last thing I want to see you do is charge off to your potential death."

He turned away from the rabbit briefly and barely whispered something under his breath. Even with her extremely good hearing, Judy could only barely hear the words that left his lips.

"Not again."

There was certainly more that she wanted to say to Nick, more to try and sway him over to her side and try and convince her to help him find this guy. But that simple two word phrase grounded her back into reality and reminded her of why he wouldn't want to go after the Armorer. Of course Nick wouldn't want to.

The Biohazard had almost killed Judy the first time they saw him.

Of course, the Armorer was fighting solely against the Biohazard at the time and never once fired on the officers. But the point was that they couldn't kill the Biohazard, but he could.

If they went after him, and they chased him down.

If they chased down the guy that all but single handedly killed a creature they could barely scratch.

And he turned his guns on them.

The result would be catastrophic.

Judy couldn't blame Nick for not wanting to go after the Armorer, after all if the positions were switched she would more than likely be doing the same for him. As much as she didn't like it, he was looking out for her.

Like a good partner does.

Nick chuckled, "Besides, aren't we getting a bit ahead of ourselves here Carrots? We still haven't found any leads on our missing predators now have we?"

Judy sighed, "No, I haven't forgotten about them. And don't worry, if I have to make a choice between hunting down the Armorer and going after our missing mammals, the Armorer can wait."

Nick smiled and ruffled the top of her head, making her grumble in annoyance, "That's my special little bunny. Always ready to do the right thing for others."

Judy grabbed Nick's paw and pushed it away, "Yeah, that's me. The rabbit that caught Bellwether and found our previous batch of missing mammals."

Nick turned back towards the road, "Yeah, knowing you, the moment the people behind these missing preds make a mistake, and you'll have them behind bars by the day's end."

Judy smirked, "WE'LL have them behind bars by the day's end."

Nick laughed, "Nah, I'm fairly certain you'll carry the both of us to victory, all I have to do is lie back and enjoy the spoils of victory."

Judy crossed her arms, "You dumb, sly fox."

Nick shook his head slightly, "Not going to argue on that one. Hey, do you mind if we break the intensity of this heartfelt talking with some mindless music, I think I've met the emotional quota for the day."

Judy giggled a little, "Go ahead, I won't force you to talk to the 'over-sensitive' bunny any more than you have to."

"Thank you Carrots."

Nick leaned over and reached to turn on the radio.

But before he could turn on some music, the police scanner turned on.

" _Hopps, Wilde, are you there? Over."_

It was unmistakably the voice of the ever loyal Clawhauser, still doing his job even though he sounded close to death.

Judy quickly grabbed the radio before Nick could get a paw on it. The aforementioned fox looked at the rabbit quizzically who merely stuck her tongue out at him. Nick rolled his eyes and kept driving. Judy smiled and turned her attention back to the scanner.

"This is Officer Hopps, we read you loud and clear, over."

" _We've gotten reports of a robbery at the Savannah Central Public Library. Since you're the closest unit to it, we need you to go down and investigate it, over._ "

Judy was about to respond but was interrupted by Nick asking in disbelief with a look to match, "Who would rob a library?"

Judy smacked him lightly on the arm to get him to shut up before turning back to the scanner, "Copy that Clawhauser, we're on our way there now, out."

She hung up the receiver and began to get out notebooks and pens that would be used in their upcoming investigation from the cruiser's glovebox.

Nick kept staring at the road, gob smacked at the recent crime, "Seriously, why would anyone rob a library?"

Judy closed the glovebox and smacked Nick on the arm once again, making him yelp in pain. "Be serious Nick. Someone just got robbed. Let's get over and figure out who and why whoever did this did so."

Nick nodded in agreement, "Yeah, yeah."

The duo drove silently, keeping their eyes on the lookout for anyone that might be suspicious. Their eyes quietly swept over the barren streets of Zootopia, scanning for anyone that screamed 'I'm a thief, come and arrest me' or 'Hey, I look like I've done some kidnapping recently, come talk to me!'

But no one caught their eye on their uneventful trip to the scene of the crime, and before long, they had arrived at the library in question. They parked the cruiser and proceeded inside the library, passing by the stone pillars that marked its entrance.

Inside they were granted the sight of row upon row of books, enveloping them on either side with the knowledge and writings of generations both recent and long past. The books were stored on giant wooden shelves that towered above those inside, lording over its denizens like sentinels of knowledge. Soft carpet lined the floors, providing a comforting feel to the paws of those who spent their days walking on the cold and unforgiving concrete of the outside world.

Like an island caught within the sea, the front desk stood proudly about halfway to the back wall of the library, with a porcupine looking somewhat worried. The porcupine spent his time at the desk doing not much more than glancing over his shoulder every now and again, as if waiting for someone to sneak up on him.

The officer duo approached the desk and knocked on the wood to get the porcupine's attention. The sudden sound caused the porcupine to jump, which in turn made Nick and Judy flinch backwards at the sudden motion. As his gaze wandered down to the badges on their chests, he put a paw on his chest over his heart and let out a deep breath. "Oh, thank the heavens it's you. You wouldn't believe the anticipation that has been building up upon the new that officers of your caliber were on their way."

Nick and Judy looked around at the nearly empty library. Those that were there were clearly did not notice the new arrivals as they hadn't even budged from their positions, hunched over their books and reading them thoroughly.

Nick nodded his head, "…right. Well anyways. I'm Officer Wilde, and this is Officer Hopps. What seems to be the problem Mr…?"

The porcupine seemed to stand up straighter, "Ah, where are my manners."

The porcupine offered the two his paw, which the two gladly took, "I am Terry Spineton, Head Librarian hear at the Savannah Central Public Library. And as for the problem, follow me into the back."

The porcupine walked out from behind the desk and motioned for Nick and Judy to follow him down the hall and towards a utility door not too far away. The trio opened the door and marched down the cold concrete hallway, more than likely moving towards a portion of the library where more delicate texts were kept in storage, away from the paws of those who might damage them.

Judy hopped a bit in order to get side by side with Spineton and brought out her tried and tested carrot pen, along with a notebook so as to record everything in exquisite detail.

"So, can you tell us explain to us exactly what happened here?"

Spineton chuckled dryly, "Well, ma'am, the short of it is that the library got robbed."

Nick quietly muttered, "Still can't understand why someone would go through the trouble of-"

He was interrupted by Judy elbowing him in the side, making him yelp and stop his train of thought. "Shut up Nick."

Nick nodded his head and turned to face the porcupine, "So what exactly got stolen Spineton?"

The trio stopped as they reached a sturdy looking metal door with the words 'Archives' written above in red utility writing that took up a small portion of the hallway. Spineton reached into his suit and pulled out a keycard and swiped it against an adjacent sensor, which in turn turned green as it confirmed his access clearance. The door unlocked with a loud 'click' and Spineton turned the handle before turning his head towards the officers.

"Well, I'll show you right now."

The porcupine opened the door revealing a mostly barren small room with a handful of metal racks lined up in parallel down the center of the room and an askew cart placed between them. The part that caught the officer's attention was one rack that was missing quite a few of its books, over half if the other racks were anything to go by.

As they entered the room, Nick recoiled back a bit and held his nose, coughing as he began to breathe through his mouth. Judy immediately moved to his side to check on him, "What's wrong Nick?"

Nick took a deep breath and slowly began to breathe through his nose. He let out a deep breath before turning to Judy, "You don't smell that?"

Judy looked to Spineton who shook his head before looking back at Nick, "No, neither of us do. Then again you do have a better sense of smell than either of us so that might explain it."

Nick nodded in agreement, "Well whatever it is, it smells rancid. If we find out who did this, I'll probably smell them long before I see them."

Judy gave the somewhat incapacitated fox a reassuring pat on the back, "Alright Nick, when we finish this up I'll hang the air freshener around your neck for you."

Nick laughed as they began to walk into and inspect the room, "Yeah, I'll hold you up to that."

Judy and Nick approached the rack from opposing sides with Spineton following Judy. Spineton gestured towards the barren rack, "As you can see, the thief made off with quite a number of old Zootopian texts. Some of these books are quite rare and can easily fetch a high price if sold to the right individuals. The thing I can't figure out is why specifically target books. I mean if they wanted money, there are clearly more valuable things than that that can be stolen."

Nick looked around at the room they were in, noting the thick concrete that surrounded them and the security door they had to get past in order to get in, "And I'm wondering just how someone managed to get in here without alerting anyone to what was going on, or how they got out without anyone noticing."

Judy rubbed a paw against some of the few books that were still there, "Yeah, they must have made some noise if they were trying to carry this many books out by hand, unless they had friends in which case, how did they ALL go unseen?"

Judy continued to inspect the rack, her eyes raking back and forth, looking for anything the thief might have left behind when her eyes spotted something on a shelf above her height.

Judy pointed to it, "Hey Nick, what is that?"

Nick followed her finger to where she was pointing and looked at the object in question, "It looks like a bag. Spineton, does the library keep anything in bags in here?"

Spineton shook his head, "Not here in the archives, no."

Judy looked up at it and then at Nick, "Can you reach it Nick?"

Nick smirked as he looked at Judy, "Why yes I can short-stuff."

Judy growled in anger and brought one of her fists up threateningly, making Nick chuckle and reach for the bag before handing it off to her.

She snatched the bag and began to inspect it. It was a simple brown cloth bag that jingled with every slight movement, letting those around know that its contents were metallic in nature. She shook it a little, feeling its contents slide around and create a more prominent jingling noise than when it simply moved.

Spineton looked at the bag quizzically, "What's in it?"

Judy grabbed at one of the strings on top, "Let's find out."

Judy pulled on the string and the bag and peered inside of it. She stared at the contents of the bag in confusion for a few seconds, simply trying to comprehend what she was seeing.

Judy shook her head and blinked a few times to make sure it really was what she was seeing. "What in the world?"

Nick approached the duo after having rounded the shelves, "What, what's in the bag?"

Judy approached the cart and moved some of the books out of the way, clearing open a spot to pour out the bag's contents. She up-ended the bag and poured out the contents.

A cascade of glinting metal fell out of the bag and onto the cart, creating a ringing sound of metal falling on metal as the back was emptied onto the cart. Judy placed the now empty bag onto the cart on top of the books she moved and just stared at what had come out of the bag in utter confusion.

"Judy?"

"Yes Nick?"

Nick reached down a plucked up one of the pieces of metal to investigate it closely, slowly turning it to inspect the small metallic disk. After a brief moment he gestured to the cap in his paw with his other paw, "Are these bottle caps?"

Judy looked down at the pile of what must have been a hundred or so bottle caps that were now lying on the cart in front of them. "Yes Nick, yes they are."

Both officers slowly inspected the bottle caps that covered the top of the cart, turning them this way and that to try and gleam as much as they could off of the little pieces of metal.

One obvious note of importance was just how old they were. Even with untrained eyes in this kind of inspection, both could clearly see the rust that had built up on the caps over the obvious years of abuse and disuse. However, the fact that they were so numerous told them that they must have had some importance to whoever left them, as no one would accidentally leave such a vast quantity of such trinkets behind unintentionally.

Spineton looked at them intently, "Dear heavens, what's with all of the bottle caps that were left behind. Why would someone leave so many in such atrocious conditions such as these?"

Judy placed the cap she was investigating back with the rest of the pile, "I don't know. Maybe a calling card or something. It wouldn't make much sense seeing as all of the jingling would definitely attract attention, something one would avoid when stealing things."

Nick turned his cap around, showing the top of it to Judy and Spineton, "I'm more interested in the brand of drink these things belonged to. Have either of you guys heard of this brand? Because I've lived in Zootopia all of my life and I have never heard of this drink."

Both rabbit and porcupine looked at the cap's brand before shaking their heads. Judy scratched herself behind one of her ears trying to dig up some forgotten memory of the drink in question, "No, I've never heard of this 'Nuka-Cola' before." She turned towards the librarian, "Have you?"

Spineton too shook his head, "No, I can't say I have. Maybe it's foreign."

Nick chuckled, "Yeah, we may just be working on the case of some international criminal who's mastered the art of library robbery."

Judy rolled her eyes and lightly chuckled at Nick's silly antics. But as she rolled her eyes, a blinking red light caught her attention and she turned her head to investigate further. Her gaze led her to noticing the slowly moving security camera that recorded their every move inside of the room.

Judy pointed her paw at the camera, "Hey Spineton, were these cameras on at the time of the robbery?"

Spineton looked at the camera and sighed sadly, "Yes and no."

Nick tossed the now forgotten bottle cap back onto the pile with the others, "What do you mean by that?"

Spineton turned his head back to look at Nick, "I mean the cameras were turned on. But whoever came in and stole those books turned them off. They only recorded what happened before and after the robbery took place."

Judy raised one of her paws up to stop Spineton, "Wait, wait, wait."

She then raised one of her fingers questioningly up into the air, "You mean to tell me they turned the cameras off, robbed the place, and then spent the time and effort to turn them back on?"

The librarian nodded, "Yeah, it's the strangest thing. The recording is completely normal as it starts recording, then they all turn and they stay off for about ten minutes, and then they all turn back on as if nothing had happened, only difference from before and after was a shelf of missing books."

Nick and Judy gave each other inquisitive looks before they both turned back towards the librarian, "Can we see this footage ourselves?"

The porcupine nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, absolutely. Follow me."

The trio walked out of the room, with Spineton closing and locking the door behind them as they left the room. The small group walked in relative silence up until the point where they actually got to the security room in question. When they finally got to it, Spineton had to use his keycard once again in order to unlock the security door.

Spineton opened the door and held it open as the fox and rabbit walked in, "This is where all of the video recording from our surveillance system ends up stored for future review. Normally it would prove adequate for events such as this, but…"

Judy hopped up onto the desk and began to work the camera systems and proceeded to bring up the video footage from earlier that day.

Nick managed to crawl up next to her and watched as the video footage began to play back the footage recorded in the earlier hours of the day. Judy began to skim through the footage, looking for the moment where the cameras supposedly went dark.

Spineton motioned for Judy to stop, "Slow down, you're coming up on it now."

Judy followed the librarian's instructions and let the footage play normally from the point she stopped on. Judy's and Nick's eyes glanced from screen to screen, looking for the first sign of interest to show up.

Their wandering gazes were halted when Spineton pointed to the one outside of the library pointing to one of the back doors into the utility areas of the library. "That's the first one that goes dark."

The porcupine held up a paw in anticipation, "And it goes off right…"

He then quickly gestured to the screen just as it turned to static, indicating that the feed had been cut.

"…now."

Nick let out a whistle at the static screen before turning to Judy, "Well, whoever we're looking for sure knows what they're doing."

Spineton silenced him with a paw before gesturing to the screens once again, "And it gets even better in a second."

Nick turned back to the screen and continued watching the screens.

Not even five seconds after and every single camera feed in the entire building cut to black, with "NO POWER" typed in the center written in flashing red letters. Judy and Nick sat in awe at the sight of the cameras all being disabled simultaneously so quickly after the first one. Their heads bounced from screen to screen, looking in vain for a screen that didn't have a cut feed. After a brief search through the screens, they were left with the simple fact that there was no information to gleam from this lack of intelligence.

Nick and Judy slowly turned to look at each other before turning back towards the bank of monitors, none of which had switched over from the black screens they were now showing.

Nick said the thought on all three mammal's minds, "Well, this complicates things."

Judy nodded her head, "Yeah, no kidding. Whoever is behind this is clearly very skilled in this kind of thing. I mean, we never even saw the individual on these cameras."

Spineton reached over to drag the footage closer to the point where the cameras turned back on, "And it's the same scenario for when they came back online."

True to his point, the camera feeds switched back on, revealing a perfectly normal library, barring a few missing books in an archive room, and one still static filled camera feed.

Judy pointed to the static filled camera, "Why is that one still broken?"

Nick looked at the screen in question and answered, "Whoever did this probably manually cut the feed to that one themselves before he cut the power to the rest of them." Nick scoffed and shook his head as the feed suddenly returned to normal, showing a perfectly normal back door to the library, "Looks like we've got our work cut out for ourselves, because I think we're dealing with a pro here."

Judy began to rub a paw against her chin, "But it still doesn't explain why whoever did this spent the time turning the cameras back on, it just doesn't make sense for a robber to waste time at the crime scene doing something such as reactivating a system that could catch them red-pawed."

Spineton nodded his head in agreement, "I concur. While it's not much to go off of, I do hope that whatever little there is here can help you in re-acquiring the knowledge lost here today."

Judy hopped off the desk and slowly walked towards the porcupine, "I hope so too. Now before we go to file this case, can you do us one last favor and take us to where the outside camera is so we can investigate it a bit?"

Spineton nodded enthusiastically, "It'll be my pleasure. Follow me."

For the third time this case Nick and Judy fell in line behind Spineton as he guided them towards the back entrance leading to the camera in question. The porcupine unlocked the back door and held it open for the police duo as they made their way outside.

Nick immediately began to sniff at the air again and groaned as he gripped his snout with one of his paws. Judy looked at Nick quizzically, "Are you smelling whatever you smelled earlier again?"

Nick nodded his head before breathing out of his mouth, "Yeah, and its stronger here than it was in there, meaning our suspect was here last."

Both fox and rabbit turned towards the camera they had come out to investigate before Judy spoke, "Yeah, and I have no doubt in my mind that whoever we're looking for spent a bit of time here if they left such a smell behind."

Both officers moved to investigate the camera in question, looking to find anything unusual about this particular camera.

And found that there was now nothing wrong with it, as it looked to be in the same shape as the others were in. If it weren't for the camera feeds they had seen earlier, there would have been nothing to suggest that there was something unusual about this camera. And even knowing of the suspicious nature behind the camera, there was still nothing to go on to determine exactly who was responsible.

Spineton spoke up, "This is where I must leave you for I must really get back to work. I wish you the best of luck in your investigation."

And with that Spineton closed and locked the door behind him, leaving the duo alone in the alleyway.

Nick and Judy briefly glanced at one another before splitting up to investigate the alleyway, with Judy investigating the back wall of the library and Nick looking around the rest of the alley.

Judy slowly paced along the width of the wall, looking to spot anything unusual or out of the ordinary. Given the nature of the alleyway, there was not a whole lot to go on, other than the camera and a handful of garbage dumpsters, the alleyway was completely devoid of anything being mostly barren. She continued to scan the library wall looking for something, anything that their mysterious thief could have used to gain entrance to the library.

About halfway down the alleyway from the city street, something on the library wall caught her eye. It was a fairly large metallic box attached to the wall with several sturdy pipes leading up the wall and into the library proper at varying heights along the wall. It was sealed shut with a very sturdy looking lock that hung heavily on a latch that sealed the box shut tight. A bright yellow lightning bolt on the center of the door gave a clear indication of what the box's function was, it was a junction box for the library's power.

Judy walked over and looked up at the box. The casing itself looked untouched, however that wasn't what caught her eye. As she got closer to the power box, she spotted something a bit unusual on the lock of the box. She stood underneath the lock and looked up at the keyhole that led to the tumblers inside. Surrounding the keyhole were small but very noticeable scratch marks, a clear tell that someone had been tampering with the lock.

And given the circumstances, there was only one individual who would have had a reason to be tampering with the lock to the power box.

Judy called Nick over, "Hey Nick. I've got something here."

Nick's head popped around from behind a dumpster and he walked over to Judy. "What do you have Carrots?"

Judy pointed to the lock, "Scratch marks on the lock to the library's power box."

Nick turned and looked at the lock, reaching out to turn it to get a better look at the object in question. He looked at the keyhole and ran a claw gently over the surface, feeling the minute grooves on the keyhole before turning to Judy.

Nick grinned as he let the lock go and crossed his arms, "Well, I guess that explains how our mysterious thief got in."

The fox turned and pointed at the camera they had originally came out back to investigate, "Our suspect arrived in the blind spot of the camera and manually disabled it before coming over and picking the lock on the power box to turn off the power to the rest of the cameras of the library."

Judy nodded in agreement before sighing, "But that doesn't explain why they went through the effort of turning everything back on. I mean they spent a lot of time working on getting everything set up for this robbery, why risk it all in getting caught doing something good afterwards?"

Nick turned and started walking away from the power box, "I don't know why they did that."

The fox then turned to look at his partner with a grin on his face, "But I do know where he went."

Judy immediately bounded over to his side, excitement evident on her face as he just admitted that he knew where their mysterious thief went, "Really? Where!?"

At that, Nick merely waved Judy over as she continued to follow him for a few feet before stopping to look down at the ground, "Right down there."

Judy turned to look, and when she saw what he was looking at, her smile fell and she groaned in disgust.

"They went through the sewer?"

Nick smirked, "Yep, that was what I smelled, sewage. Whoever we're looking for likes to travel in the sewers."

Judy sighed and rubbed a paw against her temples, "I guess it makes sense. With the smell down there he would be impossible to follow with your sense of smell and obviously no one would be able to see him moving around down there."

Nick turned to Judy, "Which means for now, we can't get them, nor will we be able to follow them down there."

Nick then began to walk down the alleyway and towards the street, "Which in turn means that until we get more info, the trail ends here."

Judy stared at the sewer covering for a few more seconds before turning to follow Nick down the alleyway as well, "Yeah. All that we can do now is just file the report and get back to our beat."

Nick grinned, "Yeah, I can't wait to respond to more false sighting reports."

Judy rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Come on Slick, let's go."

Nick nodded and the two silently returned to their vehicle, ready to respond to whatever other requests for help their city might have for them.

 _Meanwhile…_

Nate grunted slightly as he pushed the manhole cover off of the hole above him. He opened it just enough so that he could get a small peek out to recon the area immediately around the opening. He slowly turned to look in all directions, making sure that the coast was clear. After a minute of looking for anything that might do him harm and deeming that all was calm, he lifted the cover off and pushed it to the side. He let the cover roll and fall over as he climbed out of the sewer.

He stood up tall and stretched out his back, feeling it let out several satisfying cracks as the bones snapped back into their preferred positions. He turned and moved the manhole cover back into position over the hole, making careful sure that it was facing the right way up. As soon as that was done, he walked quickly towards his makeshift base and quickly made his way inside.

As he got inside, he promptly locked the door behind him and reached down to pull off his boots to let them air out. After unlacing them and put them inside his pipboy, effectively decontaminating them, he made his way over to the radio table, taking off his helmet along the way. He let out a sigh as the rush of fresh air graced his face for the first time in hours.

Nate sat down roughly on his reclaimed desk chair and let out a sigh as he placed his helmet down next to the radio that was still broadcasting his message.

Taking a few moments to recollect himself after his recent incursion, Nate let his mind wander to what he had just done.

Following the sewers to the public library was easy enough, and the security system was probably even easier. Sure for a civilian structure it was good enough to deter most common criminals.

But after having to deal with security systems of US military bases, which included laser turrets, poisonous gases, and sentry bots with enough firepower to wipe out a squad in seconds, the libraries' security systems were almost a joke. Simply cutting the power via the power box was easy enough, and once in he had almost total access to all systems, barring a few locked doors that were easily bypassed.

And once he was inside and he saw the vast number of perfectly intact books…

He must have stayed there, just staring at all of that knowledge for a solid five minutes.

Back in Boston, in a library of that size, one would be lucky to find perhaps a dozen intact books held within the entirety of the building. Here, in Zootopia, there were over ten times that in one room alone.

To see such a vast amount of intelligence in one location was a feeling Nate had long since forgotten, and it was one he never gave much thought until now. How these animals could have amassed such a wealth of knowledge in a post-apocalyptic world was just another question to add on top of a pile of growing questions that he had yet to find answers to.

But he now sought to change that.

Reaching into his trench coat, Nate grabbed a rather thick leather-bound book and gently placed it on the table in front of him, taking a moment to enjoy the simple pleasure of looking at an untarnished book with a name that promised him answers.

 _Zootopia: A lesson in the History of a city that changed animals_.

If this book really did live up to its title and it did contain within its binds the history of Zootopia, then it would truly be a great find not just for him, but for the Brotherhood as a whole, and maybe even all of humanity.

Nate just hoped he had left enough bottlecaps behind to cover the cost of the books he had taken.

Even though he had left quite a hefty sum of money behind to cover the cost of what most in the Commonwealth perceived to be nothing more than pieces of paper with irrelevant writing upon them, he knew that what that writing contained could be worth ten time over whatever price you could possibly place upon it.

The knowledge and lessons one could learn from reading a book, even a simple children's picture book could grant valuable insight into the mindset of their fellow man and perhaps unlock secrets to understanding their hostile world that forever entombs them. Such potential lessons in humanity were far too important to ignore.

Which was why Nate made sure to lock the building up tight behind him when he left, he couldn't risk someone breaking in and damaging any of those priceless books. It was the Brotherhood way to preserve and protect knowledge.

Nate reached a gloved finger to the cover to begin reading, which was when he was distracted by a noise coming from outside.

His hand immediately and instinctively reached for his revolver and cocked the hammer back as he pointed it in the direction of the sound outside.

It was the sound of metal falling down, more than likely it was just a pile of scrap metal that had fallen down, which wasn't worthy of suspicion.

What was worthy of suspicion was the accompanying yelp that went along with it, which was what prompted Nate to keep his revolver trained on the direction of the noise.

After a few seconds of silence Nate quickly put his boots back on and silently made his way towards the door and put his ear closer to the door, trying to hear anything of note.

After a few moments of silence, he finally heard something that made him pause for a moment.

A whimper.

Followed by several sniffles.

His interest piqued, Nate slowly opened the door to reveal what had made that noise.

Quite a ways down the alleyway was a small animal of some kind with its back turned towards Nate. From what he could see from it however, it was on the smaller side only reaching up to about the height of his waist. With the ears and tail he could see, even from behind the small creature, he could tell it was probably a canine of some kind.

But what really caught Nate's attention was the voice that came from it.

"Ke-keep it together. You're safe now, everything's going to be fine."

Nate's grip on his revolver tightened.

It was a kid.

And by the sounds of it, he was practically on the verge of crying, more than likely out of sadness.

The kid never noticed him as he fretted over the pile of scrap metal he had accidentally knocked over, murmuring over and over again that everything was going to be fine. Up to the point that the small canine never even noticed as Nate slowly left his warehouse home and slowly approached him from behind.

Nate slowly advanced on the young animal, making sure that his boots didn't make a sound as he slowly snuck up on the kid, revolver still firm in hand but now at least pointing away from the small figure.

As he got closer, he was able to make out the finer details that defined the small mammals figure. White pointy ears that would normally be perked up atop of his head where laid flush against it as the small child continued to sniffle as they fidgeted in place. A small black backpack was slung over his back, through small gaps in the zippers Nate could make out notebooks and pencils, more than likely meaning he was a student somewhere in this city. The thin gray shirt that he wore didn't have anything written on it, being nothing but a plain gray shirt matched up with black shorts, probably meaning that he didn't have to worry about warmth as much given that his fur looked reasonably thick even at this distance.

Now that he stood about ten feet away from the small kid, he could see that the fur on one of his arms was matted down, and seeing the small kid wipe away some tears from his face with his arm with an accompanying sniffle gave Nick the reason as to why that was the case.

Nate sighed quietly at the sight. Seeing a child being legitimately sad was somewhat of an abnormality for Nate. Before the bombs, everyone had such a naïve mindset that the few children that were around were often taken care of by those who could offer them what they didn't have.

But after the bombs fell…

Simply put, there were no children.

They were kids for sure, but they never were children. Growing up in the bombed out ruins of a major city meant that you had to grow up fast, which meant that you never could enjoy being carefree at any time of the day at any point in your life. From day one, it was fight or die.

Hell, according most of the knights and paladins he had served with, most of them had their first kills by age six, and from that point on that number only grew in size and severity, sometimes being above fifty by age fifteen.

It was a harsh world, one that crushed you the moment you showed any amount of remorse or weakness.

Which meant that people learned to keep their emotions bottled up, kids included.

So to see this young kit so openly wearing his emotions on his sleeve, it was unusual for Nate to see such openness, even unintentionally so.

But that still didn't get Nate to put his revolver in his holster.

There was listening to the emotions of young kids, and then there was flat out being stupid, and in the Commonwealth there was a fine line between the two. It was sadly not that uncommon to see raider gangs using the screams and cries of children to lure more selfless individuals into traps that more than likely led to the death of both victim and child.

The more sadistic raider gangs would go a step further and turn the kids into makeshift bombs, waiting until their mark got within range and then detonating the device, laughing at the carnage afterwards. As heartless as that was, it was a dreadfully effective tactic, as people commonly let their guard around crying and screaming children, only to realize at the last horrible moment that it had been a trap the whole time.

While that was highly unlikely to happen in this situation, Nate's survival instincts only allowed him to get this close to such an unknown kid for the sole reason that he still his revolver firmly gripped in his right hand, which he now hid beneath his trench coat.

Nate stood up from the crouch he had inadvertently been using as he slowly approached the young canine. He currently had two warring factions struggling for control within his mind; the Sentinel of the Brotherhood and the father from Boston.

The father portion of his mind was begging him to go over there and see what was wrong with the kid, as there clearly was something wrong here.

But the Sentinel part was begging him to just leave and ignore it, as there was no direct threat to the kid here and getting involved may present greater risks later on.

Nate grumbled in annoyance, trying to make up his mind as to what he should do.

But that choice was made for him when one of the ears of the canine's head twitched in his direction and the kid spun around to face him, and promptly let out a gasp as his eyes registered the visage of a man clad in black anti-riot combat armor.

The fact that the kid turned around finally gave Nate the chance to recognize the child as a young white wolf with tears in his blue eyes.

A young white wolf who had just tripped over his own two paws as he tried to slowly back away from the Sentinel, only to fall and land on the ground.

Nate calmly raised his left hand in an open palm gesture in an attempt to calm crying kit.

"Hey, don't worry kid. I'm not going to hurt you."

The wolf stayed quiet, only moving to wipe more tears away from his eyes as he stared up at Nate.

Nate sighed gently as he kneeled down to get closer to the kid's eye level. "Hey, come on kid. I won't hurt you, just calm down."

The wolf kit looked away and sniffled, "My brother told me not to talk to strangers."

Nate chuckled a bit, "Well, it sounds like your brother is a smart individual. It can be dangerous to talk to strangers, but you have to be observant enough to recognize when that stranger truly is dangerous."

Nate slowly gestured his hand out towards the small wolf, making careful sure not to make any sudden movements. The wolf merely stared at his hand and glanced up at the helm of Nate's riot armor. "Now I'm not one of those dangerous strangers, I'm one of the good guys."

The small wolf kept gazing up at Nate, "Are you a police officer like my brother?"

Nate hesitated at answering that question.

In the eyes of his world, the Brotherhood of Steel and the Minutemen were as close to a police force as humanity had gotten to since the bombs fell. While both this kid's version of the police and Nate's version brought about the idea of maintaining peace, that was where the similarities ended abruptly.

The police force here, the ZPD, maintained peace through law and order and through a system of justice that saw to rehabilitation and containment and was largely peaceful in their enforcement.

How the Brotherhood conducted peacekeeping operations was a world of difference.

When the Brotherhood encountered groups of raiders, they maintained a strict 'search and destroy' mentality, seeking nothing less than the death of everyone who wanted to kill those who were only just barely surviving out in the wastelands. When the Minutemen encountered such groups, they would recon for days or even weeks before deciding whether or not they were actually worth the time and effort to root out, and if they weren't, they would be promptly ignored in favor of more high priority tasks.

And of course, there was the ways in which each faction handled their adversaries once engaged.

If you were someone whose sole goal in life was to commit dastardly deeds, Minutemen would make it their top priority to hunt you down whatever hole you crawl into and vaporize you with precise musket fire or obliterate you with artillery fire.

And if you did something to cross the Brotherhood…

Well, they didn't become one of the most powerful military forces in the post great war world by playing nice. When the Brotherhood comes to play, they implement old world technology and tactics to devastating effect. Combined arms meant there was nowhere to hide as there was always a vertibird watching everyone from the skies, and the knights and paladins on the ground could soak up the damage and dish it out right back at their targets.

But the principles didn't change.

All were there to protect the people as a whole, and they were all willing to lay down their lives so that someone somewhere may have a better life than they had had. The ZPD and the Brotherhood at least the basic principles in common.

So to Nate, there was only one way he could answer that question and keep this kid calm at the same time.

"Yeah, I guess you could call me an officer of sorts."

The young wolf kit hesitantly put his paw in Nate's hand before Nate hoisted him to his feet, where the young kit brushed the dust off of his body. "You are mister? I've never seen an officer like you around here."

Nate looked down at his anti-riot gear, the faded 'LAPD' still visible on the armor, proudly displaying the heritage and history of the outfit.

Nate gestured towards the lettering with his left hand, "As you might be able to tell from my outfit, I'm not from here. I'm from a different city and I just happened to drop in to do some research on this city."

The wolf gave a small smile before looking at Nate's hand before looking at his own paw and then looked up at Nate, "Hey mister? Why do you have more fingers than I do?"

Nate looked at his hand and the five fingers that came attached with it.

He then kneeled down and gently grabbed a hold of the wolf's hand, and sure enough there were only four fingers there.

At this point, that observation failed to make that much of an impact on him as the rest of Zootopia had already made such a large impact already that the mere fact that the occupants had one less finger than he had was not that noteworthy to him.

So all he did was let out a near silent "Hmm… I suppose we do, now do we?"

Nate then looked at the kit in the eyes, "And speaking of we, I don't think I ever caught your name little guy."

The white wolf gently rubbed the back of his head before letting out a small smile, "My name is Fen. Fen Delgato."

Nate chuckled softly before gently rubbing the top of Fen's head, "That's a nice name you have Fen, it's a strong one."

Fen chuckled before batting away Nate's hand, "Now that you know my name mister, can I know yours now?"

Nate smiled under his helmet, "I don't suppose why not."

Nate stood up tall and straightened his back out to make himself look tall and proud, "My name is Nate Fox. Proud enforcer of Justice, wherever it may need to come."

Fen's eyes lit up with wonder and his tail began to wag behind him, "Wow. You seem so cool."

Nate chuckled, "Yeah, I guess."

But then Nate sighed a little and kneeled down to look at Fen again, "But I do have to ask you a serious question now."

Fen's smile faltered a little, "And what question is that?"

Nate placed his left hand on Fen's shoulder.

"What are you doing out here, shouldn't you be at school or with your family or something like that?"

At this, Fen's smile completely fell off of his face as he sighed and tilted his head down, a fresh batch of tears forming in his eyes that formed in conjunction with some new sobbing.

Nate reached over with his left hand and gently shook him on the shoulder, "Hey, come on now Fen. What happened?"

Fen reached an arm up and wiped away the tears and sniffled a little before looking back up at Nate. "I got bu-bullied."

Nate lowered himself a bit lower so he could get to eye level with the young wolf, "How so?"

Fen sniffled again, "A bunch of bullies ca-came over to m-me after school and taun-taunted me into howling for them. When I said no, they all st-started joke howling which got me to howl instinctively. They all started laughing saying that I-I couldn't control it and I ran."

Nate inhaled deeply before sitting himself down next to the wolf, wrapping his left arm around the young cub, making sure to keep Fen to his left side. "I'm sorry to hear that, it must have been rough for someone as young as you."

Fen continued to softly cry to himself.

Nate shook him a little, "Well, why don't you go and tell someone about it? Why not find someone of authority to help you."

Fen looked at him with watery blue eyes, "But can't you help me? You are an officer after all."

Nate froze momentarily before talking again, "I don't think that my field of expertise covers this particular area all that well to be honest. You'd best be off talking to a teacher at your school or a-."

"I don't want to go back there."

Nate stopped mid-sentence.

Nate turned and looked at Fen. "What?"

Fen stared back up at Nick, "I said I don't want to go back to school. I don't like it there because the other kids make fun of me constantly."

Nate turned to look away from him and sighed.

Many a person from before the great war had been in Fen's exact shoes.

It was a common scene to see students of all ages fretting over their scholarly pursuits, hell Nate was guilty of it as well. It was so far reaching and so heavily impacting that many lost focus of the world around them, and when they finally left school, they felt abandoned and lost to the cold vices of the world.

Hell, that was how the US Army got such good recruitment percentages during the Alaskan Campaign and later in the assault on the Chinese mainland.

Many people from before the war saw those institutions as nothing but mind washing centers preparing the next generation to serve the US government.

Maybe because after rummaging through US government files in the Commonwealth Nate had learned that that statement was truer in more ways than the perceived ones.

But to those people who were living in that hellhole of a bombed out ruined city…

Every single one of them would gladly kill a dozen people to have those kinds of worries even if for a single day. Any day where there greatest worry was how well they did on a test sure as hell beat worrying about if you'll come under fire from a machine gun nest or if you'll raided by super mutants.

Seeing the two sides of the world like that really put things in perspective for Nate.

School may have sucked for some of the people that Nate knew, but it sure as hell beats the alternative.

So Nate turned back towards Fen, "Hey come on. Don't say that. School's really important."

Fen merely replied, "That's what my brother said too."

"And as I said earlier, your brother sounds like a smart man. You really should listen to him on this one."

Fen put his paws down and looked down at them, "But I don't like it there, I'm really struggling to find friends, but it seems as if no matter how hard I try…"

Nate patted his shoulder reassuringly, "Come on Fen. You have to stay with it and keep trying. I'm sure you'll improve if you put your all into it."

Fen looked up at him with a smile on his lips and his tail wagging a little, "Do you really think so Nate?"

No.

"Of course."

Nate knew better than to believe that if you tried your hardest and worked hard that everything would work out well for you. He had worked his ass off trying to make a good life for him and his family and the world took it all away from him in a matter of seconds, leaving him cold and alone in his own metallic and frozen tomb.

But Fen didn't need to hear that.

What he needed to hear was that he could succeed no matter the adversity.

And it seemed to have gotten a response out of him.

Fen hopped up and hugged Nate, tail wagging franticly as he clutched his lower chest, "Thank you Nate."

Nate's right arm flinched and his left arm hesitated briefly before gently patting the wolf reassuringly on the back, "No problem kid."

Fen backed off as Nate stood up and dusted himself off, "Alright Fen, how about I lead you out of here and you can go to talk to your brother and the school about that bullying issue you're having."

Fen nodded his head ecstatically, "Okay Nate, I will."

Nate ruffled the top of Fen's head a little, getting a happy little chuckle out of the young wolf, "That's a good man. Now come on, let's get you out of here."

Nate began to lead Fen out of warehousing area, making careful sure that Fen stayed within his line of sight at all times.

Nate let out a small smile under his helmet at the scene of a carefree and happy child happily skipping down the alleyway with nary a care in the world besides a bullying problem.

Most of the kids he had met back in Boston had already lost their childlike wonder, only seeing the world with the same grizzled lenses that the best veterans of the Brotherhood wore twenty four seven, their world never accommodating for a moment of reprieve.

Before long, they had reached a spot where both could see a somewhat busy street with cars bustling along and mammals of all shapes and sizes walking along the sidewalk.

Nate stopped walking and Fen turned to look up at him.

"Sorry Fen, but this is as far as I can go. I really have to go back to researching."

Fen smiled up at him, "That's okay Nate. You helped me a lot today. I'll make sure keep what you said in mind."

Nate patted him on the top of his head, "I'm sure you will. Now go on, get outta here and go back home. And make sure you go back to school, ya hear?"

Fen turned and walked briskly towards the street, "I will Nate. Thanks again."

Nate waved away with his left hand and waited until the kid rounded the corner before turning and heading back to his warehouse.

Nate leaned his head back and sighed heavily, "Come on Nate, he was just a kid, he wasn't a threat to you at all."

Nate rubbed the back of his helmet with his left hand solemnly

It was only then that he finally relaxed his right hand's grip on his revolver and let the .44 fully rest in his quick-access holster.

It was a sad fact that his survival instincts demanded that he kept a hold on his revolver at all times, ready to shoot the moment the kid did something the least bit suspicious. Thankfully for the both of them, Fen never did.

Nate shook his head sadly as he looked at his right hand before letting it fall to his side as he continued walking.

While the talk had been brief and it now way encompassed anything truly significant, it reaffirmed the idea that there was much to learn about this society.

And for once, Nate had access to the very tools that were needed to help in that endeavor.

Nate opened the warehouse door and entered for the second time that day and made his way over to his seat before once again bringing the history book he had tried to read before out.

He rubbed his hand gently over the cover, feeling the contours of the cover through his gloves before smiling gently to himself.

"Well, it's time to get some answers."

And with that, he opened the book, ready to finally understand where the hell he was.

 **AN: And there we have it.**

 **I do apologize for taking so long for this chapter.**

 **I'd make a promise about being quicker next time, but I REALLY don't feel like tempting fate again.**

 **So until next time everyone**

 **-Alpha 001**


	8. Chapter 7

**Hello all, thankfully this took less time than last time to come out, but still longer than I would have liked (ps: Wisdom teeth suck when they have to get pulled.)**

 **But anyways, I suppose now would be a good time to update the story that in my opinion got way too much attention for being my first real foray into writing.**

 **Nonetheless, I endlessly appreciate the feedback you guys have given me, thank you.**

 **Also in regards to one of the wolves (the white one) being named Delgato, I have decided to just stick with Delgato because the names of the background officers seems to change every single time I write this story, so I'm choosing to stick with Delgato, and Delgato it shall be.**

 **Reviews:**

 **ManwithaPlan113: Thanks for the compliment on the chapter, and you must wait no longer.**

 **Kane 1995: Right now.**

 **Brandonthunder: It seems as if the creators constantly change the name of the characters, so I'm sticking with who I have named from now on. I know it can get confusing (believe me, I know) but I don't want to constantly have to change names over and over again.**

 **Also, please note that while I may not necessarily respond to all of the reviews here, I do read them all. So rest assured that whenever you review, I do see it.**

 **Enough about that stuff anyways, we're here for the story, hooray.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia nor do I own the Fallout franchise. Any and all characters belong to their respective owners.**

 **ON WITH THE STORY!**

Having wrapped up the library situation to the best of their abilities, Nick and Judy continued on with their day of doing their duty for Zootopia.

Though today mostly revolved around responding to false sightings and worried citizens who needed to be reassured that everything was under control.

Not exactly what the bunny cop had signed up for, but it was her job so she did it to the best of her abilities.

While yes she did want to help the mammals of Zootopia maintain the peace that helps their society to function, she so desperately wanted to work on the two big cases that had the city in a state of unease and not answering house call after house call.

The first, the missing predator case, was still a top priority for the ZPD.

Still no leads, no evidence, barely even any knowledge on who had been taken. It was an absolute enigma of a case that had even her, one of the best in the department, scratching her head in confusion. They had to have been taken somewhere by someone, but the 'who's' and the 'why's' remained unanswered.

And then the second, more painfully obvious one, at least to the public's eye.

The location of the Armorer.

The constant false sightings and worried mammals reporting into the ZPD, swamping their lines with worry was a clear indication as to how afraid the mammals of Zootopia were in not knowing anything about the location of the strange armored figure that had begun to dominate everyone's imagination.

Every shadow a figure, every tremor a footstep, every loud sound a gunshot, and every mysterious shape the armorer itself.

In the vastness of Zootopia, it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, if that haystack was constantly calling you telling you it thought it knew where the needle was only to send you to an entirely different haystack.

"Hey come on guys, you can let me go. I promise it was a one time thing."

Judy sighed and turned her attention to the 'passenger' that had joined the duo in the back seat of the cruiser.

The warthog struggled against the cuffs placed firmly around his wrists as he twisted his body this way and that in an attempt to break free of his confines.

As it turned out, one of those suspicious sighting calls had been an actual one that they had almost written off as another false alarm. While not connected to one of the big cases out there, it was a bittersweet moment to finally be in a position where their skills weren't being wasted on a false sighting.

After arriving at the scene, they very quickly noticed a warthog hanging around behind a house, a crowbar in hand and hacking away at the back door of said house in a feeble attempt to break in. Of course those attempts were immediately halted when Judy broke into a sprint towards the criminal with Nick smugly walking the same way towards the perpetrator.

The warthog managed maybe five steps before being planted into the ground by a small rabbit, curtesy of an immensely powerful kick. At that point, it was too late for the warthog to make any sort of escape attempt and was promptly placed into handcuffs by the fox whose grin only grew wider at the action.

Which was what brought the fox and the rabbit to this point, at the end of their patrol with a perp in the back seat on his way to jail.

But that didn't make him shut up about it.

"Hey, come on you guys, I promise I can explain. Really."

Nick turned to look at the warthog with a smirk on his face.

Before he could utter a word however, Judy looked at him from the driver's seat and cut him off. "Nick, don't encourage him."

Nick chuckled and glanced back at her. "Come on Carrots. I want to hear his excuse."

The fox then turned his attention back to the warthog in the back seat, "So let's hear it. What were you doing with that crowbar next to the backdoor of that house? Because to me it looked like you were attempting to break in."

The prisoner's eyes darted around as the criminal thought, "I was, I was. Uh."

He suddenly perked up, "Yeah, I was simply doing my part as a good Samaritan to test the strength of that house's back door."

Nick's eyebrow merely raised and Judy chuckled a little in her seat. She calmed her chuckling down as she turned to Nick, "Okay I take it back, that was a pretty funny excuse. No way it'll hold in court, but funny."

The warthog slumped down in his seat and Nick smirked back at him, "Hey, keep your head up. You'll only have to serve four to six months in jail for that, I'm sure that whatever you were trying to get was well worth it."

At this, the warthog's head fell limp with a resigned sigh, making Nick chuckle and turn away from the perp.

And straight into the disappointed eyes of Judy.

"Did I do something wrong Carrots?"

Judy sighed as she turned her attention back to driving, "Don't you think that was a little rough Nick? Chuckling about a bad excuse is one thing but taunting him about his future seems a bit much."

Nick just turned his head to face the warthog whose head still hung limp, arms bound behind his back with unseen handcuffs, "Well, if he didn't want to get into this situation, maybe he should have left the life of crime behind like I did."

The fox then turned back to Judy, "Besides, he got himself into this mess by first attempting to break into a house and then made it worse by trying to run away from us."

Judy shook her head, "I guess, but we don't have to berate him for it. We've done half of our job already, all we have to do is book him and take him into holding and then we're done for the day."

She then glanced at him, "So don't get us in trouble for antagonizing a criminal any further again."

Nick's smile fell a bit, "Hey, calm down Carrots. That was one time."

Judy glared at him, "Yeah, and it almost got us both in BIG trouble when they lawyered up on us."

Nick's muzzle grew a grin, "Yeah, almost."

Judy grumbled in annoyance, "You are insufferable sometimes Nick, you know that right?"

Nick chuckled, "Oh Carrots, I bank on that every day of my life."

Nick's laughing was immediately cut off as Judy slammed on the brakes, prompting the fox to suddenly shift forward and snag on his seatbelt, temporarily gagging him. He leaned back and coughed slightly as he readjusted the belt across his torso.

The warthog in the backseat awkwardly readjusted himself so that he could sit upright once again, "Hey lady, what gives?"

Judy smiled and looked at the cop and the crook, "Well, for one I wanted to try and bring Nick down a level or two."

Nick quickly replied, "Ha! You'll have to do better than that to pull that off Judy."

Judy held her paw up, stopping Nick's oncoming sentence short. "And secondly." She then pointed out of Nick's window, showing the sign proudly proclaiming 'Zootopia Police Department.'

"We're here."

Nick and the warthog perp turned to look, making the criminal hang his head in shame and Nick to lightly chuckle, "Huh. Well I guess time really does fly by when you're having fun. Ain't that right tusks?"

The warthog sighed as the two cops' doors opened and shortly thereafter, his door opened, showing him the steps that led up to the still under construction doors of the ZPD. Judy stood in front of the door while Nick leaned up against the vehicle, crooking one of his finger's towards himself, as if playfully suggesting for him to move.

"Come on buddy, it's time to see your new home."

The warthog slowly slid out of the vehicle, and the instant he was out of the vehicle Nick grabbed him by the arm and began to drag him into the building, with Judy leading the way triumphantly inside.

The cop duo plus crook made their way through the somewhat busy lobby of the ZPD, weaving their way through cops and civilians alike, as they made their way to the front desk where they could book this crook and be done with him.

They arrived at the front desk, where a jaguar stood where Clawhauser usually stood.

Judy hopped up on the desk, a questioning look on her face, "Hey, where's Clawhauser?"

The jaguar looked up from their computer to look at the bunny, "Hmm? Oh Clawhauser."

She then rubbed the back of her head, "Yeah, he kind of finally gave in and went home to sleep. Poor guy needed to be driven home he was so tired. So I've taken up the mantle of handling everything for him while he gets some much needed rest."

Judy smiled a little, "About time, he looked like he was going to collapse the last time I saw him."

The jaguar chuckled, "Yeah, I'm guessing that's why he went home."

Nick then coughed a little to get the jaguar's attention, "And speaking of home, I think this fella needs to be shown into his new one."

Both Judy and the jaguar looked down at the warthog who was making a conscious effort not to look any of the officers in the face.

The jaguar giggled a little as she looked down at the criminal, "I'm sure we can arrange appropriate housing for him."

She gestured one of her paws forward and a few seconds later, a tiger came and grabbed the warthog's handcuffs and began to push him down one of the hallways and towards the holding cells. She then took out some paper and began writing while keeping a paw close to the radio set, ready to respond to any calls that needed answering.

Judy hopped down from the desk and promptly high fived Nick, who already had his paw up in anticipation for her action.

She then promptly fist pumped the air, "Yeah! Another criminal locked up!"

She began walking towards the break room, more than likely to get her paws on a treat for herself.

Nick smiled at her ecstatic form, "Yeah, we sure did it Judy. We sure did."

He rubbed a paw over one of his ears before he chuckled softly to himself and followed after her, wanting to treat himself as well.

They made their way down another hallway and eventually pushed open the door into a moderately sized break room, complete with a sofa, refrigerator, several comfortable chairs of varying sizes, and a few tables, one of which had several officers huddled around it.

Nick stopped in his tracks and looked at the gathering of cops while Judy continued on her way and opened up the refrigerator, retrieving a small plastic container holding numerous blueberries that she intended to snack on. She closed the heavy door before walking back to Nick to stand next to him.

She grabbed a pawful of blueberries before she finally looked up and noticed the group of officers that Nick had noticed earlier.

She elbowed Nick lightly before asking, "What do you think is going over there?"

Nick smirked before grabbing his own pawful of blueberries from Judy's pile of fruit before answering, "I have no idea, knowing them it must be something very interesting."

Nick said that last part while rolling his eyes, prompting Judy to shake her head before she headed over to investigate. As she got closer, she covered her container to ensure the safety of her cargo before she jumped up onto one of the adjacent chairs to get a better view of what was going on. Nick was not far behind as he climbed up the chair to join Judy in her investigation.

As they got into position, one of the other officers, a lion, acknowledged their presence, "Hey Wilde, hey Judy. How'd the day treat you two?"

Judy smiled, "Hey Jackson. You should know how our days go. We go out, we kick some tail, and we bring in the bad guys."

The lion shifted his gaze over to look at the accompanying fox, who merely shrugged, "Don't look at me buddy, I just follow her around all day. Like a stalker."

Judy laughed a little at the joke and Jackson merely chuckled, "Ha. Very funny Nick."

The lion then turned back towards his original focus, "Maybe you two could use some of those detective skills you used against Belweather and help us figure something out here."

Nick and Judy looked at each other before making their way down towards the table and towards the small group of officers.

When they arrived at the scene, they saw the group of officers huddled around a piece of paper on it with writing on it that they all took turns looking at. Judy and Nick looked at each other before heading over to investigate.

As they got closer, they could see that some of the officers had their personal phones out and would periodically look at the piece of paper before looking back down to type something from it into their phone.

Judy walked right up to the group, "So, what's going on here?"

The brown timber wolf Wolford turned to look at the duo, "We're busy investigating this."

Nick took a look at it, rubbing his paw under his muzzle before snapping his fingers. "It looks like paper. Mystery solved everybody!"

Wolford rolled his eyes, "Yeah, we were more focused on what was written ON the piece of paper."

Judy put her paws on her hips, "Well, what is it then?"

Wolford picked up the piece of paper, "Well, while we were all busy doing our jobs, Clawhauser happened upon something unusual on the radio waves."

He shook the piece of paper a bit, "He found a really weird radio broadcast."

Nick took a step forward, "What makes it so weird?"

Wolford chuckled a little, "Well, for starters it's at a really high frequency. Like, an absurdly high frequency that Clawhauser was only just barely able to pick up on our radio sets."

The wolf grinned a little, "Thankfully, Clawhauser was able to piece it together by listening to it over and over again because it is apparently a repeating message."

Nick and Judy glanced at each other before Nick gestured towards the note, "Well, don't leave us hanging buddy, what does the message say?"

Wolford held the note in front of him and cleared his throat out.

"This is a high priority message to anyone in the Brotherhood of Steel. This is Sentinel Nate Fox of the Commonwealth detachment contacting anyone from the Brotherhood. If you receive this message please respond. I am cut off from support and am currently hiding from the local population of a major and heavily populated city. If you can receive this message I will not respond unless the proper counter sign is given. The challenge is Icepick. This message will repeat."

Wolford put the note back on the desk before looking at Nick and Judy.

Judy looked like she was now deep in thought, trying to figure out what the radio message meant to whoever sent it, or to whoever was meant to receive it.

Nick on the other hand looked at the note and nodded his head slowly before turning to look at Judy with a dumb smile on his face, "I recognized some of those words."

Without even looking up, Judy silenced Nick by clamping one of her paws on the end of Nick's muzzle, effectively quieting him. She then turned her attention to the note. She began to try and gather as much information from her collegues as she could.

"Who is this Sentinel Nate Fox?"

Anderson shrugged his shoulders, "Your guess is as good as ours. We ran the name through all known databanks and nothing came up. Whoever this guy is, he's a ghost. No aliases, no pictures, no species identification, not even a birth certificate for anyone whose name came remotely close to it."

Judy then looked up from the note, "And this Brotherhood of Steel he was trying to contact, anything on them?"

Francine looked up from her phone, "No dice there either. We have no idea who they are or what they intend to do. The only thing we know about them is literally their name."

Judy looked over at Nick, "Sly, do you know anything about either of these things?"

Nick put his hands on his hips and shook his head, "Can't say that I do Carrots. All I can say is that if there is an organization that I haven't heard about, it either means that they are really small, really new, or operate in the shadows very effectively."

Judy sighed, "And none of those things bode particularly well for us. As long as we don't know anything about them, they could have free reign over whatever it is they intend to do and we'd never be the wiser about it."

Judy rubbed a paw down the front of her face and let out a sigh, "Geez, problems have been stacking up a lot recently. On top of missing mammals and the Armorer at large, we now have a mystery broadcast on our paws."

Wolford looked up from his phone, "Actually, the broadcast won't be a problem."

Judy looked at him, a brief moment of hope in her eyes, "And why is that?"

Wolford smiled, "Simple. The broadcast isn't active anymore."

Judy's ears slumped down as she groaned in defeat.

Nick stepped forward to get involved, "So either this Sentinel guy stopped the transmission himself, or…"

Anderson turned to look at Nick, "Or he made contact."

Nick shook his head before looking at Judy, "Well, I bet that won't lead to anything terrifying. Ain't that right Carrots?"

Judy just rubbed her eyes and sighed, "Why is it that everything that could occur decides to occur within the span of a single week."

The rabbit then turned away and slowly walked away, "First we have missing predators, then we had the armorer and the biohazard fighting in the streets, thus leading to one dead monster and who knows what else loose in the city. Then we have some kind of top notch burglar using their impressive skills to steal from a library, and now we have a radio signal we know nothing about nor can we trace it seeing as it is no longer broadcasting."

She rubbed a paw down her face, "All of these mysteries are beginning to stack up on top of one another, and we are nowhere near solving any of them."

Nick placed a paw on her shoulder, "Does someone need to be given another pep talk on how amazing she is?"

Judy chuckled, "Nah. But don't let that stop you from telling me how awesome I am."

Nick grinned, "You don't need me to tell you that."

Judy smiled before turning around and hopping off of the desk, "I guess you're right, but enough of this. Come on, it's time for us to file the reports on that attempted robbery and then we can head home."

Nick sighed at the thought of having to write reports, but nodded in agreement nonetheless, "Sounds like a plan buddy."

Judy placed a paw on Nick's arm, "I know the reports are the single most boring part of our day, but let's just get it over with."

Nick looked at her paw before looking at her with a growing, genuine smile on his face, "Fair point. Well then Carrots, let's get it done."

Judy smiled and nodded her head before the two headed off.

Nick and Judy proceeded to walk out of the room and headed towards the office space on the second floor, having to pass through the lobby to get to the stairs that would take them upstairs.

As they entered the lobby however, they were met with the sight of a relatively distraught looking white wolf making a beeline for the front desk. As he got within speaking distance of the jaguar at the front desk, he began to barrage her with questions.

Their interest piqued, and wanting to put off their reports for a bit longer, the fox and rabbit duo headed over to see what was happening.

As they got closer, the white wolf in question became more recognizable before Nick was able to put a name to the muzzle.

"Delgato? What's going on buddy?"

Delgato turned to look at Nick, worry etched across his muzzle before he walked over and kneeled down to talk to him and his partner, "Nick, Judy. It's good to see you two."

Judy walked closer to Delgato, "Hey Delgato, what's going on? You look really worried right now."

The wolf turned over his shoulder to look back at the jaguar at the front desk who sadly shrugged her shoulders before going back to her duties. Delgato sighed before turning to look at Nick and Judy, his worried face becoming even more so.

He took a deep breath before asking, "Have either of you two seen Fen?"

That same worried feeling now spread to the duo as they looked at each other, sharing the same answer with a mere glance at one another before Judy looked back at Delgato, "No, neither of us have seen him today. Why?"

Delgato stood up and put his paws on his head and walked away a bit, softly muttering to himself, "No no no. This can't be happening…"

Judy immediately sprung to the wolf's side, a serious expression now on her face. She grabbed Delgato's shirt and used it to spin him around to face her, "Delgato, what's going on?"

Delgato looked at her for a moment before taking another deep breath before talking, "It's Fen. He never showed up to be picked up after school."

Judy's ears fell and her eyes grew wide as her blood ran cold. A quick glance at Nick showed he held a similar feeling, though he did a fair bit better at hiding it than she did.

Nick walked straight up to Delgato with a rarely seen serious expression on his face as he gestured towards the ground, "Delgato, what happened?"

Delgato stood up, "I went to pick him up from school, but he never showed up at the spot we always meet at." He took a deep breath before he raised his voice a bit, showing the unease he clearly felt, "I waited for him for over an hour but he never came."

Judy grabbed his arm, "Calm down Delgato, is there anywhere he could have gone, anywhere at all?"

The wolf shook his head, "I already thought of that and checked, but I couldn't find him. I can't think of anything that could have happened to-."

Delgato's face fell as he looked at his paw, paying particular attention to the claws at the ends of his fingers before slowly turning to look at Nick and Judy, his unease now replaced with terror. His mouth open and closed but nothing came out as realization joined terror on his face as his breathing became more ragged.

Nick and Judy looked at each other, worry crossing their faces before Judy once again grabbed Delgato, "Delgato, calm down. I'm sure everything is fine and that he-."

Delgato snapped his head towards her, "HOW CAN I BE CALM WHEN FEN COULD HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED!?"

Judy stepped back at the outburst as numerous heads turned to look at the panicking wolf.

Nick stepped in to add his two cents to the situation, "Delgato. Calm down. NOW!"

Delgato looked at Nick and Judy before he calmed his breathing. He took several deep breaths before speaking again, "You're right. I'm sorry for my outburst. I just-."

Judy stepped over and grabbed his arm, "It's alright Delgato. You have a very good reason for being stressed right now."

Delgato rubbed a paw down his muzzle, "It's no reason for me to lash out at fellow officers like that. It's just so FRUSTRATING not knowing where Fen is. I mean he could be anywhere."

Delgato just slumped to the ground, "I just hope, pray that he wasn't kidnapped. I don't know what I'd do if he-."

He as cut off by Judy, who gently placed her paw against his shoulder, "It's going to be alright Delgato, I'm sure of it."

Delgato weakly nodded as Judy began listing possible things that may have happened to Delgato's brother.

Nick meanwhile rubbed the underside of his muzzle and looked around the lobby, letting his mind wander to the various locales of Zootopia, trying to imagine just where Delgato's little brother may have gone to, keeping the cynical thoughts of a possible kidnapping at bay.

For now.

There were parks he could be in, alley ways he may have gotten lost in, the house of one of his friends.

Nick sighed. Zootopia was a big place, especially to a young pup like Fen. With a healthy curiosity, he could be wandering around anywhere.

Fen could be wandering around Sahara Square.

He could be trudging through the snow of Tundra Town.

He could be in a tree in the Rainforest District.

He could be walking in through the front door of the Zootopia Police Department.

Which was what Nick happened to be seeing happening right behind Delgato.

Nick smiled a little, which made Delgato leer at him, "How could you find this amusing Nick?"

Nick just pointed behind the wolf, "Turn around buddy."

Delgato turned and sure enough saw his little brother walking through the front door, tugging at one of the straps to his back pack as he looked around the lobby.

Delgato stood stock still as he took in the sight of his little brother okay in front of him. He blinked once or twice, just to make sure that he was really and truly there in the building with him.

His hesitations were laid to rest as Fen locked eyes with Delgato.

Delgato immediately broke out into a sprint through the lobby, "FEN!"

The smaller white wolf began to slowly make his way towards the much larger and faster wolf that was sprinting straight at him. Delgato tripped and landed hard on the floor beneath him, but continued to crawl the rest of his way to his younger brother, a few tears in his eyes as he finally got close to Fen.

The moment he could, Delgato picked up Fen and held him close in a tight hug with Fen doing his best to awkwardly return the affection. Delgato simply held Fen, thanking whoever was listening that Fen wasn't lost or kidn-.

Delgato stopped the thought there. It hadn't happened and it wouldn't happen to him, so it was best to stop thinking about it. For now, he just wanted to relish the feeling of holding his brother close.

Judy smiled at the sight of Fen and Delgato being reunited, their tails wagging wildly as they hugged only as family could. Even if it was only for a few hours the overwhelming fear of a kidnapping was enough to make it more emotional than normal. She felt her eyes mist up a bit at the sight of such raw emotions being put on display in the middle of such a raw amount of emotion.

Mainly because of what the alternative could have been.

Nick walked up to Judy and rubbed the top of her head, "There there, you emotional little bunny. I know you can't resist such a happy ending as this but at least try and save a little face while in public."

Judy wiped the small tears in her eyes before looking at Nick, "While you do have a point, you have to admit you're at least a little relived that Fen wasn't kidnapped. That would have been devastating to everyone."

Nick nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I also can't help but fear what would have happened should the media have learned that the son of a police officer had been kidnapped. The civilians would have surely lost faith in us if we couldn't even protect our own families."

Judy's face hardened as she looked at Fen and Delgato, the latter bombarding the former with questions about where he went and why he went there. She stared at the scene for a minute, silently taking it in before turning to Nick, "Nick."

The fox in questioned turned to look down at her.

Judy looked up at him with a serious expression, "We need to stop these kidnappings. And we need to stop them now."

Nick merely nodded before turning back to look at the brothers who were now heading out of the building, more than likely going home to have a more serious discussion in private, "10-4 that good buddy."

Delgato all but carried Fen into the car that he used as his personal vehicle. He planted his younger brother in the passenger side rear seat before getting in behind the wheel and setting off.

Silence ruled the vehicle before Delgato looked at Fen through the rear view mirror, "Fen. What were you thinking running off like that? You didn't contact me or anything, no one at the school knew where you went. That was extremely irresponsible running off like that."

Fen looked solely down at the floor of the car, gently rubbing the fur of his arm, "I'm sorry Del, I didn't mean to scare you like that. I just got scared and I ran."

Delgato looked at him again through the mirror, "What scared you?"

Fen looked at Delgato directly, "I got bullied again. They were laughing at me and I didn't know what to do so I ran away."

Delgato sighed and pulled the car over and turned it off so that he could twist around in his seat to look at his brother directly, "Look, I understand that these bullies have been giving you problems. Believe me, I can understand what it's like dealing with mammals like that. But you can't just go running off like that without telling me where you are or where you're going. What if something happened to you? I wouldn't be there to help you."

Fen was silent as he contemplated the words that his older brother said to him.

Delgato sighed as he reached over and rubbed the top of Fen's head affectionately, making the pup smile a bit and lean into the paw rubbing him.

Delgato stopped his rubbing, "I'm not mad at you for what you did. You ran away from people that were giving you problems, and that's okay. Just, let me know where you are afterwards okay. You can't go leaving me in the dark like that, it scares me."

Fen sniffled a little, "Okay Del, if I have to do that again, I'll let you know where I am."

Delgato smiled, "That's all I'm asking. And I'm sure that if you go to the school with this problem, they'll be able to help you solve it."

Fen nodded enthusiastically, "Okay Del, I'll go talk to them tomorrow."

Delgato chuckled before ruffling the top of Fen's head, "Good boy."

Fen laughed a little before Delgato retracted his paw and started the car back up and got it rolling again.

Delgato glanced around at the buildings they passed by, the mammals wandering about as they went about their daily lives, going to and fro as they did their daily routines. The police wolf's eyes lingered on an older, run down looking building before glancing back at Fen.

"You never did tell me Fen, where DID you end up going after those bullies bothered you?"

Fen looked nervous but answered nonetheless, "I ran all the way to the abandoned warehouses."

Delgato's eyes widened, "You went there? Why did you go there?"

Fen shrugged, "I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, and before I knew it, I ended up there."

Delgato just stared at him for a bit before sighing, "As long as nothing happened to you, I could care less where you went, so long as you're alright."

Fen immediately perked up, "Oh yeah, something did happen to me."

Delgato's ears swiveled towards Fen, "Really, what happened?"

Fen smiled, "I met this really strange mammal near one of the old abandoned warehouses."

Delgato's face hardened a little at that statement, "Really? And what made this mammal 'strange' to you?"

Fen thought for a second, "Well, they wore this really weird black stuff. It looked kind of what those pictures you have of the SWAT team, only it looked WAY scarier. I never even saw his face, he had this mask on covering it up with really cool red eyes."

Delgato became a little scared at the individual Fen was describing, terrified at the thought of his younger brother encountering such a mammal.

"He had this really long coat on that went at the way down, almost to the ground. Underneath that he had on this really cool armor that scared me for a bit before I realized that he was a good guy."

Those last two statements about the armor and the fact that he was a good guy really caught Delgato's attention, making the police wolf grip the steering wheel harder, "What uh, what made his armor so cool Fen?"

Fen looked up in thought, remembering the details of the figure, "Well, he wore it under his coat and it was covered in all of these scratches and marks, plus it looked old. And he had on it a strap that was filled with bullets across his chest."

Delgato almost broke the steering wheel with how hard he was gripping it.

It was hard enough for criminals to get their hands on weapons that could potentially harm mammals, and it excessively difficult for them to acquire actual firearms, with strict laws making it nearly impossible for non-authorized personnel to use them. Heck, even he, a trained police officer, wasn't authorized to carry a true firearm. And it was extremely rare to see the everyday criminals wandering around with that kind of firepower, even though it did happen occasionally. Usually the worst that showed up were tranquilizer weapons with expired tranqs or tazers with shorting batteries.

The fact that the mammal that Fen had run into had numerous rounds of lethal ammo could only have meant one thing.

He had a weapon that used those bullets.

A weapon that was no doubt VERY close to Fen at least at some point or another.

A weapon that could have been used.

Delgato began to focus on the other part of what Fen had said, "And what do you mean by 'he was a good guy'?"

Fen smiled, "Well, he said he was a cop like you. But he wasn't from here, his armor had something written on it that proved it."

Delgato stared right at Fen through the mirror, "What was written on his armor?"

Fen though for a minute, trying to recall the small detail before he tried to snap his fingers, "I remember now, it said "LAPD RIOT" on it."

That gave Delgato food for thought.

He had never heard of this 'LAPD' before, nor had he ever heard of a riot officer wearing such a getup as the one described to him. The riot officers he was aware of carried and used namely tear gas and flashbangs to break up mobs and to calm mammals down. Their job was to bring the mammals back under control and to restore the peace. Their job, while many never saw it this way, was to maintain the peace.

In short, riot cops don't use firearms to shoot mammals back into submission.

So this guy clearly wasn't a riot officer.

But he was wearing some kind of riot officer armor, though a kind he had never heard of.

The implications of that were unpleasant to say the least.

Delgato continued to stare at his younger brother, desperate to get more information out of him, "Is there anything else you can tell me about this mammal Fen?"

Fen nodded, "Yeah, what was really strange was that he had five fingers on his paws. Five! I didn't even know they could go up that high."

They couldn't.

The academy had taught Delgato all about the different kinds of mammals they would encounter while on the job, from the littlest rodent to the largest pachyderms. They were forced to listen to lecture after lecture on how each kind of mammals might react to each kind of situation so that they might be more prepared while on the job. And that included taking entry course biology lessons that that they could be able to recognize mammals based solely on identifying figures, such as tail structure, horn shape, dental configuration.

Shape and number of fingers on their paws.

The paw print was a very important part of the crime fighting repertoire, able to prove or disprove whether or not a particular mammal was at the scene of the crime. And each species generally had a unique hand structure that was able to immediately narrow down the list substantially, which made their job as officers much easier.

Except in this case.

Because Delgato had never heard of any mammal in the history of Zootopia of ever having five fingers.

No mammal in the vast database available to him characteristically had five fingers on their paws, the max was four, like him and his brother.

Delgato was deep in thought as he pulled up in front of their small house, it's somewhat run down visage looking a bit depressing, but marking home nonetheless.

Delgato stepped out of the car and waited for his brother at the front door, a serious expression on his face. Fen met him at the door, a quizzical one to match his brother's.

"Is something wrong Del?"

Delgato kneeled down to get at eye level with his brother and gently placed his paw on Fen's shoulder and looked directly at him, "Fen, is there anything more, anything at all you can tell me about this mammal."

Fen nodded.

"What?"

Fen looked directly at Delgato, "He said his name was Nate Fox."

 _Elsewhere, earlier that day…_

It was a strange sensation to just be sitting there starring out over the bay, watching the sunlight glisten off of the gently rolling waves, watching them lap up at the docks beneath him.

For the first time in, God knows how long, Nate found himself in a strange predicament.

He had nothing to do.

For years on end, he always had some goal undermining every action he took, every step he made. For most of that survival was a part of it sure, but there was always a bigger goal in mind as he survived, a reason to survive.

In Anchorage, he wanted to avenge his parent's deaths and ensure that no one would ever have to live through what he had to. In Boston before the bombs fell, he wanted to ensure the best possible future for Nora and Shaun and give them a better life than he ever had.

After the bombs fell, he just wanted something to have survived from his brief time of true, honest happiness.

And after the, incident, underground in the Institute.

He dedicated himself to the Brotherhood, to secure a stronger future for humanity, one that was founded upon the idea of learning from the mistakes of the past to ensure that they never happened again.

But after recent events, he found himself wondering what his next goal was to be, seeing as how once again he was left utterly alone, to survive on his own devices and his wit alone.

He rested his uncovered head in his hand as he continued staring across out over the bay, letting his mind wander as he contemplated all that had happened to him.

He had stopped reading those books he had gotten from the library, he had gotten his answer from them after all.

 _Earlier…_

He had read the history book for all of twenty minutes before he began to realize something, interesting. The history it talked about for the past 200 years was understandable, how these animals built themselves up to form the society that he saw around him today. The process wasn't all that dissimilar to the same history humanity had had in the past, and it made sense that they might have to rebuild and relearn some of the technologies of the past in order to survive.

That wasn't what got his attention however.

What did was the history beyond those 200 years.

It talked about important animals, cultural milestones, technological achievements, economic shifts.

But it never mentioned perhaps the biggest change in human history.

There was no mention of the Great War anywhere.

It didn't show up.

That immediately piqued Nate's interest. It would seem fit to at least acknowledge an event as large and as impacting as the unilateral destruction of all of human civilization. The fact that it was nowhere to be seen in this text about history was alarming. There was ignoring the events of the past because they are just too depressing to think about, but for a historian to completely overlook an event as important as that.

There had to have been something more to it than that.

So Nate closed up the history book and moved on to a more practical book, a geography book.

He wiped what little dust there was off of the cover of the book and opened it up to the first page.

And immediately he noticed what was wrong.

It showed a map of the world.

With five continents.

Last time he checked a globe of the world that was two short of the actual seven. He stared at the map for a few seconds, confused before he went back to the history book to look over all maps of the world there that he had overlooked in favor of reading the actual text.

He opened up the book to one of the latter pages that he never got to and sure enough, it was a map showing only five continents.

His eyebrow raised in thought as he grabbed another book, a weather book that he had grabbed to learn about the climate of the region. He opened it up, and sure enough once again it had a map of the world, and it showed five continents again.

Nate's blood began to run cold.

It was unlikely that the same error had to have been occurring over and over again.

There was a reason that all of these books had the same error.

He was the only one reading it wrong.

He picked up an astrology book and opened it up to find a picture of the very earthly image he had begun to question. Rifling through the book, he eventually found a picture of the same globe he had seen in the other books.

And there next to a picture of the planet with five continents, was a label naming it.

Animalia.

Nate's heart plummeted.

He was aware that the teleporter worked. But now it seems as if it had worked a little too well.

Only seven planets in the solar system.

Five continents on the planet.

No mention of the Great War anywhere in the history texts.

No radioactivity whatsoever.

No humans.

Walking, talking, anthropomorphic animals.

The evidence all pointed to one and only one answer as to why he hadn't been able to contact the Brotherhood or even any other human.

Because there were no humans or Brotherhood soldiers to contact.

Because this wasn't earth.

Nate stood up and took a shaky step back, tripping over the chair but catching himself before he hit the ground to hard.

He stared dumbfounded up at the table, his mind still reeling from this new information, "What the fuck?"

 _Present…_

Nate sighed as he thought back to the event that had led to this point.

It had meant to be a simple test of the teleporter's ability to transport troops across the commonwealth. A grand journey of about 15 feet, that's all it was supposed to be. Hell, it was even proven to work before hand with a crate of supplies, it worked and they all knew it.

Nate clenched his fist hard.

Hindsight was 20-20 and all of that.

He was stupid for testing it on a person so soon. He was stupid for being the first person to be teleported. He was stupid for not having the deathclaw cage moved to a more secure location.

That was a lot of mistakes that occurred all at once that had led up to this moment.

And they all could be pinned onto him.

Nate sighed once again.

Because he knew that if he were put into that exact situation, he would have made all of those mistakes all over again.

The Brotherhood needed that teleporter to send troops anywhere in the Commonwealth to secure an advantage as fast as possible. He wouldn't have allowed anyone else up to be teleported first, seeing as how the original one the Brotherhood had built to get into the Institute in the first place had been his creation. And there was nothing anyone could have done about the deathclaw, they were too fast and too clever, it would have found another way to get to him.

But that line of thought led to a question, one of many he now had but this one rose to the forefront of his mind.

What the hell was the Institute doing with a teleporter that powerful?

That teleporter had no problem in teleporting him, an armor clad Brotherhood Sentinel, and a 15 foot tall deathclaw God knows how far away from earth as if it had teleported them 100 yards away.

They had to have been planning something with a teleporter that could do that.

Nate sat up straighter.

Or maybe they already had done something.

The Institute had been operating with impunity at least since Shaun took over, so that easily meant at least a decade's worth of research and study that went into that teleporter, probably more.

And with a teleporter that could send them literally anywhere they wanted to go, that meant they could be literally anywhere.

Even here.

Nate thought about that possibility for a bit before dismissing it.

He had infiltrated the Institute and succeeded in discovering every one of its little secrets that it had to hide from him. He, and in turn the Brotherhood, had learned the ins and outs of their entire organization.

And something as big as an off world outpost would have definitely showed up somewhere, there was no way they were that good at hiding secrets, human history could attest to that.

They were scientists, they wrote everything down and made sure that it was recorded and analyzed.

So if there were no records of them using the teleporter for extraterrestrial activities, then they didn't do it.

But that only solved one of Nate's worries.

He was still all alone on an alien world.

He stood up and slowly walked back into his base, suddenly turned home. He looked at the run down warehouse that he was now forced to call his new home.

It frustrated him.

Everything he had worked for. Everything he had fought for. Everything he had lost. Everyone he had lost.

And this was what he had to show for it.

A rundown warehouse at the edge of a bay on alien world.

Completely alone with no fellow humans to talk to.

His head slowly turned back to the radio he had set up earlier, his voice still blaring through the speakers. He slowly walked over to it, listening to his voice still filled with hope that he might be able to contact his fellow soldiers and reconnect with them and talk to them about this strange city he had found.

But now…

He reached over and gripped the knob and twisted it, effectively silencing himself and killing the radio signal, ceasing any and all outside communications.

His hand never left the knob however.

His arm began to tremble, slowly at first but slowly became more and more violent as Nate's breathing became slightly more ragged.

He suddenly yelled and threw the radio off of the desk.

He watched as it smashed into the concrete ground and broke apart.

He knew that he had to think rationally, come up with some sort of long term plan of survival.

But first, he wanted to blow off anger that had been building up since the planet's true discovery.

He reached through his pile of scrap metal he had been collecting as spare parts to maintain his equipment and shortly thereafter found what he was looking for.

A heavy piece of pipe.

He gripped it in his hand and made it back towards the radio, the diodes sparking as if the radio itself was still trying to cling to life.

But Nate wouldn't have any of it.

He gripped the pipe in both hands and swung down hard.

"THIS!"

The pipe impacted heavily, shattering the case.

"IS!"

It hit again, breaking the radio effectively in half.

"FUCKING!"

One half of the radio broke into pieces.

"BULLSHIT!"

The other half was now as equal as its counterpart.

Nate looked down at the now completely destroyed piece of equipment, but only felt marginally better.

He knew that life wasn't fair, God knows he knew.

But this was fucking ridiculous.

He had already lost his family to both the American-Sino and the Great War. Tough shit, it happens in war.

He had lost his world to the ravages of nuclear war. That sucked, but it was the result of people whose names he never knew.

But to actually go out and literally lose the world you had long so fought for?

That was a fucking new one.

And it was frustrating to no end.

He had fought so long and so hard to try and make the world a better place for his fellow man, that was why he had joined the army in the first place. It was for that reason that he never gave up in the face of a post-apocalyptic world, because maybe, just maybe, he might be able to make it better for someone. That's why he had joined up with the Brotherhood, because the Institute was following the old world tradition of leaping before they looked when it came to advanced technologies.

For most of his adult life, he had been fighting, and fighting very hard and dangerous fights and what did he have to show for it?

What had been given to him in return for all of his hard work?

Nothing. Instead, the world had taken away the last bastion of good he had seen in fucking years, a faction he could identify with and understand in the form of the Brotherhood of Steel.

Now they were fucking GONE. He was robbed of his own life, once again.

Nate took a deep breath to calm himself down and he collapsed into the chair and rolled back a bit.

"Come on Nate, get it together."

He then leaned forward and began to think.

"Thinking about the past isn't going to get you out of this mess."

He turned back towards his power armor, and began to come up with plans.

Survival plans.

Nate sighed. Just like the first time he stepped out of Vault 111, he would have to adapt and survive to a strange and unfamiliar world he now found himself in. It sucked, but there was nothing he could do to change the situation, so he would have to play with the hand he was dealt.

He then glanced over at the pile of scrap he had accumulated, then over at his table of weapons.

He turned back towards the desk, grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil, and began writing.

Food.

Water.

Munitions.

Maintenance.

Security.

Goals.

It wasn't much of a list, but it was a list of what he needed to survive.

He began to go over each item to ensure that he could accommodate for each one.

He glanced at the back wall of the warehouse, the side facing the bay and chuckled dryly to himself.

He crossed 'water' off of the list, seeing as he had access to a limitless supply right outside his door. All he would have to do is purify it and it would be good to go, and he had been trained both by the Brotherhood and by his need to survive in how to purify even salt water, so he didn't have to worry about that.

He opened up his pipboy and began rifling through his inventory before he found what he was looking for. He brought it up, materialized it, and put it down on the desk beside him.

A bag of mutfruit seeds.

He had been meaning to swing by his old neighborhood to plant a couple of the hardy fruits off at the settlement he had made. Turns out, his lack of doing so earlier was, for once, a boon to him as he now had a source of food. The damn things could grow just about anywhere, and living in the hard environment of the Commonwealth meant that they always grew strong.

He then double checked his inventory and saw that he had a good stockpile of pre-cooked meat and some raw meat still sitting there ready to be cooked. By the looks of it, he would easily have enough to keep himself alive until his mutfruit matured.

But he wasn't taking the chance, even though he knew he'd probably make it regardless.

He wrote next to food, 'Mutfruit needs to grow. Have food, but be ready to scavenge if needed.'

He nodded to himself before moving down.

Next on the list, munitions.

Nate rubbed his head a little.

That was going to be a bit tougher.

He knew how to press his own ammo, in the Commonwealth it was an unspoken rule that you should know how to make your own ammo. Hell, thanks to the Brotherhood, he could even keep his more advanced weaponry well fed, given the right equipment.

But there was the problem. He didn't have the equipment, and given that the ZPD wasn't likely to just hand him a pressing bench, it'd be up to him to make his own.

Next to muntions, he wrote, 'Have scrap for parts. Need to set up equipment for building munitions. Set up mass prod. Capabilities. Need electronics/machinery.'

Given how much these animals threw out in the alleyways, he wasn't too concerned about finding what he needed. After that, he'd just need to put it all together, and since he's done so before back in Sanctuary, he knew how to do so here. The rest would be simple time and effort, two things he had in spades now, so he simply wrote 'get table together/small manufactory, keep it quiet.'

Below that, maintenance.

As was with munitions, there were plenty of spare parts lying around, he'd be fine in that regards as long as he played it safe and played it smart.

His equipment was generally very hardy. In regards to the Commonwealth any weapon that wasn't so was quickly thrown out in favor of a hardier and more well put together piece of hardware. So even if he couldn't immediately find the scrap he needed for maintenance, he could in theory keep using it or simply use a different weapon. His power armor was much the same, only it required much more in the ways of resources to keep it at maximum efficiency.

Nate felt confident that with as much junk and refuse he had seen that he'd be able to keep his weapons in conditions that would keep him alive in this strange new land.

Next up was security.

Nate had already set up some preliminary defenses around the warehouse, but those were nothing more than short term barricades he had set up more as a deterrence rather than an actual long term perimeter. Since he was now in it for the long haul, he had to think of long term security.

His mind immediately went to the military training he had all those years ago in Anchorage.

Sound traps, tripwires, reinforced barricades, the works.

Hell, with his engineering expertise, he might just be able to build a turret like the ones he saw surrounding Covenant.

But for now, he just wanted something that could alert him to someone approaching him. He felt confident that with what he was now dealing with, he could handle whoever wandered his way.

So he wrote next to security, 'Set tripwires in alleyway to alert if someone is in alley, put sound traps closer to door to signify how close they are, reinforce door + walls.'

He looked at the list with confidence, a short nod curtailing how sure he was that his plan was coming together well.

And then his eyes looked at the last item on the list.

Goals.

…

Nate sighed as he rested his now weary head in his hand, pencil gently flicking against his cheek.

This one was definitely the hardest one of them all, and arguably the most important.

Nate had always had some underlining goal stating what he intended to do with his life. Hell, most people did.

But for the first time since the days before Anchorage, he had nothing.

No family to protect, no Army to serve, no life to rekindle, nothing.

And without a general goal he was aiming for, what was the point in doing the rest of what he had written down?

Nate stared at that one word for minutes on end before he grumbling and shaking his head.

He had come up with something, but it was something he was all to familiar with. And quite frankly, he was getting tired of doing.

"Fuck it."

He wrote it down anyways.

'Lay Low. Rebuild life, and survive. Again.'

Nate shook his head.

Once again, he was forced to do those last two things. First it was Anchorage, then it was Boston, then it was Boston after the bombs dropped, and now it was on an alien planet with no outside support available to him.

Nate put the pencil down and twisted his head, eliciting a crack from his neck as he stood up.

He surveyed the room, taking in the layout of the building that was his new home. Already, he began mentally drawing plans up for reinforcing the weakest parts of the wall of the warehouse, began thinking about where he would put the junk he collected to be reused as spares and scrap for his weapons, where he would put his munitions press.

Nate then glanced at the door, and began thinking about outside security and how he would be setting things up there, then about what kinds of supplies he would be needing in order to set everything up.

He reached into his coat and brought out his .44, opened the cylinder and inspected the chambers.

Fully loaded.

He flicked the cylinder closed and re-holstered the weapon.

"All right Nate, let's get to work."

 **AN: There we go, another one down. Woot.**

 **I have nothing else to say, other than I made a new year's resolution to work on this story more often (Sorry Civ VI, but you'll have to wait.)**

 **Until next time folks, have a good one and stay safe.**

 **-Alpha 001**


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